Understanding Amadeus: The Critical Software Behind Global Airport Operations and Recent Check-In Disruptions

Amadeus stands as one of the world's largest travel-technology platforms powering global aviation operations.

New Delhi:

A brief but impactful 45-minute glitch in a major airline software system caused widespread check-in delays at airports on Tuesday. Air India subsequently confirmed that the system had stabilized and flights were operating according to schedule.

Airlines attributed the slowdown to an issue within Amadeus, a software system widely utilized throughout the aviation industry.

What Is Amadeus?

Amadeus ranks among the world's premier travel-technology platforms. Airlines depend on it for their core operations, encompassing everything from ticket bookings to check-in management, seat inventory control, boarding procedures, and departure control. Due to the interconnected nature of these systems, even a short-duration outage can significantly impact flight schedules and create long queues at airports.

Essentially, Amadeus functions as the digital foundation for numerous airlines and travel agencies, enabling standardized and efficient passenger processing across airports worldwide.

What Is The Global Distribution System?

A fundamental component of Amadeus is its Global Distribution System (GDS). This platform connects travel providers (including airlines, hotels, car rental companies, rail operators, and cruise lines) with travel sellers (such as travel agencies and online booking portals).

A GDS performs two primary functions:

Acts as a marketplace - It consolidates airlines, hotels, car rentals, cruise and rail operators, presenting their schedules, availability, and fares in a single interface. This enables travel agents to compare prices and make instant bookings without switching between different systems.

Provides tools for travel sellers - Most GDSs offer dedicated booking interfaces for agents and APIs for online travel platforms. This allows sellers to access real-time data and issue tickets through one unified connection.

How A GDS Works

Search - A travel agent enters a specific query, for example, a flight from Delhi to Mumbai.

GDS fetches live data - It connects to each airline's reservation and inventory system to retrieve real-time information on seat availability and fares.

Booking - When the agent confirms a booking, the GDS creates the reservation directly in the airline's system.

Updates - Any modifications or cancellations processed through the GDS are instantly reflected in the airline's system.

The GDS itself doesn't maintain inventory; it simply provides connectivity to the provider's database.

Amadeus extends beyond GDS functionality. It operates sophisticated Passenger Service Systems (PSS) for airlines: comprehensive reservation systems, inventory control mechanisms, departure-control systems (managing check-in and boarding), baggage-management tools, and additional services.

For airports, Amadeus may also deliver solutions for gate management, passenger flow optimization, and resource allocation.

How One Glitch Can Disrupt Airports

Centralised infrastructure - Amadeus functions as the central nervous system for numerous airlines. If its network or specific modules such as the check-in system experience downtime, all dependent airlines lose access simultaneously.

High volume of traffic: Amadeus processes millions of bookings and check-ins daily. Any disruption, even brief, can overwhelm fallback procedures or manual processes, resulting in extensive queues and flight delays.

Interconnected operations: Functions including booking, check-in, baggage handling, boarding, and scheduling are tightly integrated. A failure in one component (such as check-in) can disrupt the entire operational chain.

Global scale of operations: Because Amadeus operates worldwide, a single outage potentially impacts airlines and airports across multiple continents, not just locally. Historical incidents have demonstrated delays affecting airports from London to Singapore.