Amadeus and Fourth Dimension Software integrated some of their tour operator offerings and entered into a co-marketing pact that could give FDS a larger footprint in Europe and fill in some technology gaps for Amadeus.
And, oh yeah, the partnership could make things more efficient for tour operator customers, enable them to better package scheduled, charter and net-rate flights using the two companies' integrated services, and provide them with broader options through TravelTainment's multi-channel distribution platforms.
Several things drove the arrangement. TravelTainment provides a desktop solution and booking engine for tours, but many tour operators still are using decades-old technology for back-of-the house kinds of things such as inventory management, so there was a need to fill that gap. As Amadeus, like other GDSs, looked to diversify leisure offerings, it went looking for a tour technology partner.
Amadeus is tight with Thomas Cook and I have to believe that it knew months before Tnooz broke the story that BlueSky's days were numbered. And, from the looks of it, another major provider, Anite, appears to be bogged down with the labor-intensive task of migrating existing customers to a new version of its platform.
The genesis of an Amadeus arrangement with FDS, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., had to be in the works for some time, given that their tour and desktop technologies are now intertwined.
Nouvelle Frontières' apparently successful integration of FDS' Contour platform earlier this year must have been a confidence-builder for Amadeus and, coupled with the exit of BlueSky, likely provided the backdrop for the announcement of the Amadeus-FDS marketing agreement.
Under the partnership, Amadeus will market Contour to tour operators, and FDS will push TravelTainment's booking and distribution solutions to FDS' customer base.
With the technology integration, Contour can be tied into Amadeus Web Services, Amadeus Master Pricer and TravelTainment's distribution front-ends.
A partnership with Amadeus, and the access that it provides to tour operators in Europe, is one that FDS must have had high on its priority list for some time.