SriLankan Airlines Becomes the First Airline Group in the Indian Subcontinent to Adopt Amadeus' Altéa IT Suite

Madrid, Spain, 7 February, 2013: SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, and the Amadeus IT Group, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, today announce a landmark agreement that will see the airline migrate to Amadeus’ full Altéa suite by 2014.

The deal, which is the first of its kind for Amadeus in the Indian subcontinent, will enable both SriLankan Airlines and its sister airline, Mihin Lanka, to adopt Amadeus’ next generation IT suite in order to manage its mission-critical reservations, ticketing, inventory and departure control processes.

At the same time, the agreement between SriLankan and Amadeus will help facilitate the airline’s entry into the oneworld global alliance. Currently Amadeus is the standard IT platform for the alliance with more than half of the members of oneworld adopting the Amadeus Altéa suite to date.

Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will work in close co-operation to begin the migration process from SriLankan’s existing  passenger service system to Altéa, with the first phase of the migration, covering the reservations, inventory and ticketing modules, scheduled to be completed this year. Migration to the Altéa departure control system module is planned to commence in the first half of 2014.

The agreement with SriLankan follows a period of sustained success for Amadeus and its Altéa suite across Asia Pacific in particular in 2012, when contracts were agreed with Garuda Indonesia and EVA Air. Most recently Amadeus has also successfully migrated Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines to Altéa, with Garuda scheduled to migrate later in 2013.  

Nishantha Wickremasinhe, Chairman SriLankan Airlines said: “We consider this a significant move in our future plans to place SriLankan Airlines in an advantageous position and becoming the first airline to adopt the Altéa Suite in the Indian subcontinent displays our commitment to be on par with the technological developments that are critical for efficiency in today’s aviation industry.”

Kaplia Chandrasena, Director/Chief Executive Officer, SriLankan Airlines commented: “Implementing Amadeus’ Altéa suite is crucial to the evolution and expansion of SriLankan Airlines and our inclusion within the oneworld global alliance. The Altéa suite will truly modernise our IT processes, enhancing our service provision, whilst enabling us to become a more ‘customer-centric’ carrier than ever before. This agreement is highly significant for our employees, passengers and partners.”

Julia Sattel, SVP Airline IT, Amadeus IT Group commented: “This is a key strategic win for Amadeus as we continue to extend our global reach. This agreement with SriLankan is also important for us as it is the first Amadeus customer for Altéa from the Indian subcontinent, something that we are extremely proud of. We very much look forward to working in partnership with SriLankan as the migration process begins in earnest this year.”

Amadeus’ Altéa suite is used by over 120 airlines globally.