Amadeus chief financial officer Till Streichert is hugely optimistic about the prospects for aviation, but he tells ABN the need for cutting-edge technology has never been greater

It won’t come as a surprise that a former telecoms executive believes stridently that advances in technology are key if aviation is to meet growing demand for flying in the post-Covid world.

But for Till Streichert, who joined tech giant Amadeus as chief finance officer in the midst of the greatest challenge the sector has ever faced, the vision for an industry now in recovery is clear.

He sees embracing digitalisation and automation as vital if a sector that is constrained by supply-related shortages in terms of people, aircraft and airport capacity is to achieve the growth being demanded of it.

Speaking to Aviation Business News on a visit to London last week, Streichert said recovery from the pandemic has come slower than some had hoped but that Covid is now firmly behind us.

“There were a number of many waves of Covid and many players in the industry in 2020 had hoped recovery would be quicker than we’ve seen, but here we are in 2024. Travel is fully back.

“2023 was still a year of recovery, but you just have to look at Iata figures to see we are back to 2019 levels. There are some pockets, like Asia Pacific, where we are going to see additional growth.

“But some regions are already beyond pre-Covid levels – look at north America. What matters most is growth prospects in the medium and long term. Covid has shown us there is a desire to travel. You can see that everywhere.”

Streichert says he has never regretted the decision to swap the relative security of the telecoms sector, which boomed during Covid, for aviation, which spent much of the pandemic grounded.

He made the decision to leave Vodafone’s South African subsidiary Vadacom to join Amadeus prior to the pandemic hitting and admits it was a “challenging time” for all in the sector, but he says “the travel industry is a great place to be”.

“Travel has got something that’s genuinely very positive because it connects people, it connect societies. When I joined the industry I was impressed by the dynamic in the travel sector.

“It’s fragmented and you have a lot of players that support the traveller’s journey from the start when they are searching and booking through to the airport and border control when they fly and then when they collect their luggage and arrive at their hotel.

“But the dynamic and desire to be forward looking, powered by travel demand, that was something I found very positive.”

It is this complex eco-system of interdependent providers that gives a company like Amadeus an opportunity to support aviation and travel’s efforts to operate more effectively and efficiently.

Amadeus’s software and IT systems are embedded throughout the industry and this is where the company, which employs more than 18,000 people, “adds value” to the airline sector, according to Streichert.

“Of course, all of these players in the market have to live off what’s available in terms of margin, but it comes down to the question of are you offering something which people want to do, something which people are looking to buy from you. And that’s why the demand for travel is very powerful.”

Amadeus is listed on the Spanish stock exchange but has operations globally, a legacy of its airline Global Distribution System (GDS) heritage that remains a core part of its business.

Last year it reported that it spent more than €1 billion on IT and Research and Development (R&D), a 12.9% year-on-year growth and something that puts the company among Europe’s highest investors in tech.

Streichert says this is vitally important for a company that needs to be seen as offering “cutting edge” solutions to its customers, particularly in emerging areas like biometrics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

He believes 2024 will be a year in which these technologies will mature and more live use cases for aviation will emerge that will spur further testing and roll out. Amadeus recently announces the proposed €320 million acquisition of biometrics specialist Vision Box.

“Everything starts with where we provide value to the airlines and to the overall travel industry. That’s what we base our investments on, and I’m convinced that they will yield good returns,” said Streichert.

“For us, Research and Development is fundamental to evolve the technology and to modernise so we have cutting edge solutions for our customers. If you look at the history of Amadeus it’s a story of growth powered by investment in technology. Investment in R&D is in the DNA of Amadeus.”

In the area of payments, Amadeus launched specialist subsidiary OutPayce last year to help its customer orchestrate their payments in what is today a much more diverse, complex and global marketplace.

Another recent deal announced was of Voxel, an electronic invoice and B2B payment solutions provider, which Amadeus will acquire for a reported €113 million.

And Amadeus itself has undergone the biggest technology transformation in its history moving much of its IT infrastructure off mainframe servers and to the cloud in a partnership with Microsoft that will apply its expertise in AI and other emerging tech to develop the aviation IT systems of the future.

Due to the nature of technological advances, IT investment priorities have changed over the year. The move to Iata’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) has been a recent priority and now the focus is on Amadeus’ “modern airline retailing” platform Nevio.

Streichert says: “When you think about the tech side of modern retailing, two years ago we, and many others in the sector, were still asking questions about what’s to come and what will modern retailing look like.

“Now, in 2024, we are dealing much more with the question of how we start implementing it and making it real.

“And that’s what we are seeing. We have launch partners like Finnair, and Saudia expressing an interest, and more airlines interested in understanding what this means for the industry.

“This year is much more of a year of making it happen rather than thinking about the concept. This is something I feel very strongly about. In the end it’s all about digitalisation and automation.”