New network scheduling solutions from Amadeus and Optym could see airlines unlock millions of dollars

MADRID and GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Airline flight network planners have a tough job. They are responsible for creating flight schedules that consider crews, aircraft, gates, competition, potential disruption and customer demand in a way that maximizes profitability and is operationally feasible. Building such a schedule is a challenging and time consuming prospect for any airline network planner.

But when airlines succeed in optimizing their flight schedule relative to their full potential, they can unlock an additional 1 to 3 percent of their current revenues – that amounts to millions of dollars for most airlines. Today, Amadeus and Optym announce a new long-term partnership to solve that challenge, in a way that was previously believed impossible.

Optym and Amadeus' new suite of network planning solutions is based on sophisticated algorithms that give airlines a fully optimized schedule based on accurate forecasts in just a few hours, not days or weeks. This is the only technology on the market that can build a schedule from a "clean sheet". This means that the solution can create a schedule from scratch—without a previous schedule to work with—thus giving the airline more strategic flexibility and opening new scheduling opportunities that may have previously gone undiscovered.

Optym, which is based in Gainesville, Florida, was founded by Dr. Ravi Ahuja, a former professor at the University of Florida in the field of optimization and mathematical modeling.

"This partnership is a great fit – each party brings complementary strengths, combining our world-class mathematics and proprietary optimization know-how with Amadeus' airline experience, size, global reach and technical sophistication," said Dr. Ahuja, President and CEO of Optym. "We think airline network planning is ready for some new, innovative thinking and we are excited about helping airlines unlock more value from their schedule."

Optym works in other industries, including rail and mining, but Amadeus is exclusively investing in the development of their airline solutions. The partnership has Amadeus contributing its vast knowledge of the airline business and financial support to develop the solutions that have not yet been brought to market. In addition, Amadeus will use its global network to accelerate Optym's growth plans and sell the solutions worldwide.  

Julia Sattel, Global Head of Airline IT at Amadeus added, "We want our technology to help airlines succeed in this increasingly competitive market, and that's why we see network planning and scheduling as a very important area for airlines and their customers. The Optym network planning and scheduling solution is already the best one in the market, and with our help we think it will become truly game-changing."

This suite of network planning solutions are offered as the Amadeus SKY suite by Optym. This suite includes two solutions which are already available in the market today: Amadeus SkyMAX by Optym providing schedule optimization, and Amadeus SkySYM by Optym providing schedule reliability simulation. The next three solutions in the suite will deliver schedule forecasting (Amadeus SkyCAST by Optym), schedule management (Amadeus SkyWORKS by Optym), and route frequency optimization (Amadeus SkyPLAN by Optym). 

Notes to the editors

About Optym
Founded in 2000, Optym specializes in building decision automation and optimization solutions for the transport industry. The company develops intelligent solutions for companies to reduce their operational costs, increase their profitability and improve service quality. With offices in the United States, India, Armenia and Australia, Optym is truly a global presence in the transportation software industry.

Every company faces their own unique business optimization problems. Many decisions that were once made by humans are now made by machines, and Optym is taking this mentality to the transportation industry. Their specialized knowledge has already provided solutions to some of the biggest names in the airline industry including Southwest Airlines. Optym also provides solutions to numerous other industries, including Walmart, Office Depot and BHP Billiton.

As our world moves further into the digital age and technologies become more advanced, Optym is quickly becoming a worldwide leader in transport optimization.

To find out more about Optym, visit www.optym.com

About Amadeus
Amadeus provides the technology which keeps the travel sector moving - from initial search to making a booking, from pricing to ticketing, from managing reservations to managing check-in and departure processes. Our products and solutions help to improve the business performance of our customers: travel agencies, corporations, airlines, ground handlers, hotels, railways, car rental companies, airports, cruise lines and ferry operators. At the heart of our approach is innovation. Amadeus was recognized in 2014 and 2015 as the leading European investor in R&D for the travel and tourism sector by the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, which ranks European companies by total investment in R&D. Over €4 billion have been invested in R&D since 2004. It is this strong commitment that we believe will enable us to continue working with our customers and partners to shape the future of travel. Amadeus works in more than 190 markets with a worldwide team of more than 14,000 people. For the year ended December 31, 2015, the company reported revenues of €3,913.0 million and EBITDA of €1,465.0 million. Amadeus is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under the symbol "AMS.MC" and forms part of the IBEX 35 Index.

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Media inquiries:
Debbie Iannaci
Director, Corporate Communications
Amadeus North America
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SOURCE Amadeus