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Covid-19 crisis pushes Amadeus into the red

The Covid-19 crisis “severely impacted” Amadeus in the first half of the year as the technology firm fell €89.2 million into the red.

The 113% slump over the same period last year came as travel agency bookings fell by more than 78% to 65.9 million.

Revenue for the six months to June 30 dropped by 54.7% to €1.3 billion.

Travel agency volumes hit a low in April before starting to show improvement.

The company reported that more schedules were made available by airlines from late May, and “gross bookings generally responded”.

Annual cost cuts of €250 million are being introduced in addition to €300 million in cost savings plan announced in March.

The company has also raised €1 billion plus a €200 million European Investment Bank loan to bring its total liquidity to more than €4 billion.

Chief executive Luis Maroto said: 
“The second quarter of the year marked a very difficult moment globally for the travel industry in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The large-scale lockdowns across regions had a severe impact on travel, flight scheduling, on air bookings – further worsened by cancellations – and passengers boarding aircraft.

“Consequently, our revenue, ebitda and adjusted profit were considerably impacted during the quarter.

“Since late May, we have begun to see an increasing number of flights being scheduled, and air traffic and bookings have been responding. However, the situation remains highly uncertain.

“Despite this difficult background, we have remained highly active, supporting our customers closely to overcome this situation and adapt their operations.

“We continue to monitor the situation with the Covid-19 pandemic closely.

“To strengthen our business for the future and to offset the sustained effects of the pandemic, we have taken additional actions to increase our liquidity and at present we have liquidity available of €4 billion.

“We are also taking measures to improve the way we operate, the way we serve our customers, to foster innovation and most importantly, to protect our business. These include 
efficiency adjustments and also an organisational evolution to ensure that we are strongly positioned for the future.”

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