Amadeus Res System Purchase Heralds Integrated Air, Rail Display

Amadeus' recently acquired majority stake in rail-focused reservations system Onerail will help the global distribution system bulk up its rail offerings, officials said, and ultimately enable it to display short-haul rail and air content on the same citypair side by side to its worldwide client base.

Amadeus last month took a 95 percent stake in Onerail, with plans to acquire the remaining 5 percent, said Diane Bouzebiba, head of Amadeus' rail business unit.

Though Bouzebiba acknowledged technological and commercial hurdles to gaining full rail content and displaying it side by side with other transport content through the global distribution system, the integration of Onerail technology and commercial holdings should help move the plan forward by the end of 2010.

"We have existing customers that are already in discussion with us for components of Onerail," Bouzebiba said. "We are targeting over the next two years a fully integrated reservation and inventory system, integrated into the existing Amadeus distribution system, which means considerable advantages to being an Amadeus rail provider distributing through the GDS."

Bouzebiba said a perfect storm is brewing in Europe to bolster rail competition and promote global distribution system use among largely nationalized rail suppliers.

Europe plans to liberalize the rail transport industry in 2010. Meanwhile, many European companies continue to encourage rail over air travel for short-haul trips.

"Many procurement officers in Europe are putting in place corporate policies that say a journey of less than three hours must go on the train," Bouzebiba said. "Unless the train is bookable in the same place in an integrated way for the travel agents, that becomes a problem. We have to make sure our technology follows those trends."

Meanwhile, the European Commission is proposing a large-scale effort to harmonize air and rail ticketing capabilities throughout the European Union. The Commission is seeking commentary from industry stakeholders from the air, rail and distribution sectors to formulate "a clear and detailed analysis of the potential market for integrated ticketing in this sector."

Though the focus on rail content has been centered on the European market, where robust rail infrastructure already exists, Amadeus' Bouzebiba said the global distribution system also is in discussions with Amtrak to develop a similar solution in the United States.