Innovation & Environment
seen from the travel industry

How do you see your business evolving over the next five years? What role will AI play?

Predicting the evolution of emerging and rapidly developing technologies such as generative AI is a delicate exercise. Three years ago, there was little or no talk of generative AI and today it is revolutionising our daily lives and industries. Amadeus invested more than €1.3 billion in research and development in 2024, 20% more than in 2023. We have been integrating AI into our solutions for over a decade to improve the travel experience for everyone, everywhere in the world. We are constantly seeking innovation.

We work closely with global partners as well as local partners. With universities, research laboratories, industrial groups... With the Industrial Research Council for Artificial Intelligence (ICAIR), for example, with the 3IA Côte d'Azur AI Cluster... All these collaborations enable us to anticipate certain developments. The current wave of AI agents, for example, with the emergence of contextualised data models. The arrival of quantum computing... We position ourselves on these bases and adapt our offering accordingly.

For example, thanks to AI, we can now optimise the movement of equipment at airports by cross-referencing flight data and passenger data. This allows airports to better predict equipment usage and avoid unnecessary ground movements of equipment. The environmental impact in this specific case is therefore positive. Amadeus' role is to develop innovative solutions for our customers to help them better understand and manage the impact of their operations. The premise is simple: if our customers are better informed, they will be able to make better strategic choices, particularly in terms of reducing their environmental impact. Our role is therefore to maintain cutting-edge solutions so that all our customers and partners can benefit from them, throughout the entire travel chain, right down to the end user.

What is your view on the current regulatory framework? Given the challenges, are we going far enough on environmental issues?

Like many large companies, we publish our sustainable development activities in our annual report. Beyond the legal regulatory framework, Amadeus has implemented a very committed internal corporate policy, particularly in terms of ethics. The aspects of privacy, transparency and data reliability are very important in our business and are treated as such.

With regard to artificial intelligence, we are signatories to the AI Pact, which came into force last year at European level (August 2024) and we incorporate regulatory aspects and best practices into our processes. To develop solutions that use biometrics, for example, we use AI to generate artificial faces and train facial recognition. This enables us to comply with our ethical principles.

We also pay particular attention to how our solutions and algorithms are developed and how they work with our Green IT programme. We adapt storage capacities to the needs of our users. We optimise our algorithms and measure their effectiveness in terms of transactions. We also seek to favour partners and suppliers who are committed to the same approach. We have implemented a number of measures to reduce the carbon footprint of our premises. This obviously requires the effort of all our employees, and we ensure that they are trained accordingly. Amadeus' goal is to achieve net-zero impact by 2050.

From your point of view, is the race for innovation compatible with the general approach to sustainable development? The two seem difficult to reconcile. How do you see it?

To improve our impact on the environment, technological innovation is a major challenge. From my point of view, focusing on innovation means helping to respond to the global environmental challenge. We are working with research laboratories on optimising mass data management. This is a key issue for us, but also for our partners and it is absolutely essential. It is through innovation that we will find the evidence we need to address these global environmental challenges. We cannot tackle these issues alone, even though we are a key player in the travel industry. As a global player, we firmly believe in the need for collaboration between all players in the sector in this area. It is this collective approach that ICAIR seeks to promote and maintain.