Mubasher: Fifteen air navigation service providers from the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region have entered into a 10-year agreement with Amadeus’ Distribution. 

This agreement was negotiated and led by the Arab Air Carriers Association (AACO), according to a recent statement.

The MENA airlines participating in this framework agreement to date have carried 110 million passengers in 2016; these airlines are expected to serve over 1 billion passengers during the 10-year period of the agreement.

“The contract follows a previous 10-year agreement with 13 AACO airlines, signed in 2008,” the statement added.

Participating AACO airlines will work with Amadeus to explore how to further improve the services, as well as maximising the potential of Amadeus’ travel agency network.

This partnership comes after an 18-month process during which AACO’s taskforce for future distribution strategies carefully backed a variety of technology and distribution providers based on their ability to support the long-term needs of its member airlines, the statement said.

More airlines in this region will be able to join at a later stage, following the 15 airlines which have signed the agreement to date.

“This framework secures a solid foundation for those AACO members as they continue to innovate and it will remain open for additional member airlines that wish to join in the future,” the secretary general of AACO Abdul Wahab Teffaha commented.

“Amadeus’ commitment to evolving airline distribution is demonstrated through its recent IATA NDC Certification as an aggregator and our extensive work on the IATA One Order standard. This deal represents an enormous achievement for Amadeus,” Julia Sattel, senior vice president at Amadeus, said.

Maher Koubaa, vice president and head of Airline Group, Middle East and Africa, Amadeus added: “Airlines in the Middle East have been some of the most successful in the industry over the past decade. Whether their focus is on providing travellers with a premium product, capitalizing on the region as a hub between Asia and Europe, or pursuing a partnership approach, airlines see the value in an omnichannel distribution strategy, to maximise their sales with travellers across the world.”