Amadeus It Group Sa Ord

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Amadeus Q1 2026 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. I would now like to turn the conference over to Luis Maroto, President and CEO of Amadeus. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and a very warm welcome to our Q1-26 results presentation. Thank you for attending today. I'm joined by Carol, our CFO. Let's begin. So please turn to slide 4 for our takeaways from the quarter. Amadeus opened the year with solid growth and profitability, following the strong momentum we saw in quarter 4 of last year. In March, the situation in the Middle East resulted in a moderation of our volume evolution, slowing our performance in the quarter. Nevertheless, for Q1, Amadeus posted pricing and digit growth at constant currency, with good revenue growing 8%, adjusted EBIT increasing by 7%, and adjusted diluted ETS expanding by 9%. From March, the developing situation in the Middle East generated disruptions in air traffic in the region, namely origin, destination, and stopover traffic. This also impacted the bookings associated with these air traffic, primarily through an increase in cancellations. This kind of effects are well aligned with what we have seen in similar situations in the past. Despite this, our strength in Q1 stemmed from solid momentum in January and February, which continued through March in parts of our businesses. We saw resilience in our business. Traffic accelerated in other parts of the world, while rebooking activity also supported revenue growth through different streams. Global traffic grew 5% over January and February, and 2% in March, resulting in 4% growth for Q1. We are closely monitoring the uncertain macro and geopolitical contexts, with a range of impacts making it difficult to predict in the short term. We do expect to see temper performance in Q2. Based on our current assumptions of booking growth recovery in the second half and global traffic growth of 3% in 26, we are currently expecting to deliver within our outlook for 26 and we will update the market at the end of July if this changes. Commercial and business momentum remained strong through the first quarter and we increased our customer base across our segments, expanded the portfolio of solutions adopted by our customers and cross-solve more solutions across verticals. At Amadeus, we are focused on long-term growth and we invest with conviction for the future. As a leader in travel technology, our goal is to be an orchestrator in an AI-enabled travel ecosystem. 50% of our capex is related to product and solution development, which includes AI capabilities and enhancing AI solutions. We aim to connect suppliers, sellers, and AI assistants to trusted and dynamic data at scale. And this has to be done in a neutral, secure, and responsible way. We believe Amadeus will capture value as the essential infrastructure powering any new players, including AI players, expanding our role and increasing our relevance. We're pleased to announce last week our intention to acquire Idemia Public Security, a world-class, market-leading biometrics technology platform to create seamless end-to-end travel journeys of the future. IPS delivers on our growth ambition and long-term commitment to biometrics as part of our broader platform strategy. It increases the breadth and scale of our offering and makes us more relevant in one of the most transformative technologies for delivering fast, convenient and secure end-to-end traveler journeys. We are committed to executing on our strategy. We remain highly confident in the breadth of opportunity ahead and in our growth prospects into the mid-term. Now let's turn to our strategy and how it translates into commercial wins. Amadeus is leading the airline industry's retailing transformation with Nebio, our AI-native next-generation airline IT platform. As you know, Lufthansa Group, British Airways, Air France KLM, Saudi and Finnair are engaged in Nebio, with 25% of Altea TVs now involved in a Nebio program. And looking ahead, we see strong interest across all regions and expect momentum to build beyond Europe. In the quarter, Amadeus continues to grow the scope of solutions adopted by our customers. For example, we were pleased to announce that Southwest Airlines, the largest domestic carrier in the US, signed for Amadeus Altea and DC. becoming the first U.S. airline to do so. Alaska Airlines, one of the largest U.S. carriers, is in the process of implementing our AI power, innovative, modular, and data-driven revenue management technology. We also have new customer signatures for Airport IT, including the World Immigration of the Philippines, London City Airport, and Swissport, among others. Moving on to hospitality, the Amadeus Hospitality Platform offers the most comprehensive AI power portfolio of core capabilities to the hotel industry. And it is the most broadly connected ecosystem of partners. We are creating a global community platform of world-leading hotels on a mission to transform relationships with guests. We are advancing with Marriott International, Anchor, and the Ascot Limited to join our platforms. We are pleased to say that over 1,000 Marriott international properties are live on ACRS, with a meaningful number of additional Marriott properties scheduled to migrate gradually throughout 26. In the quarter, we have commercial momentum across our hospitality and payment solutions, including, for example, several customer signatures for media and distribution solutions, and British Airways implementing OutPace end-to-end payment orchestrators. As for the Amadeus Travel Platform, which enables travel providers to retail through third parties worldwide, we secure new or renewed distribution agreements, and we enrich our content with the addition of Jet2, among others. We also sign several contracts with travel sellers for content distribution and with several corporations for our Cypric EC corporate IT solutions. As a demonstration of the interconnection of our solutions, we are pleased to share that an airline has adopted our hospitality digital media solutions for the first time. Also Delphi, our market leading events and catering solution in hospitality is now supporting a leading UK university as well as Premier League stadiums. On the technology front, we remain on track with the commissioning in our data center following the completion of our cloud migration last year. and we continue to advance our partnerships with Microsoft and Google, leveraging AI. Agentic AI promises to transform travel in very positive ways, bringing increased personalization to travelers, as well as productivity and efficiency gains across the value chain. Madeos is uniquely placed to deliver Agentic AI functionality into products and solutions, supporting our customers on their own journey, and to serve as an orchestrator in an AI-enabled travel ecosystem. Please stand for slide 6 for our AI milestones this quarter. Amadeus plays a distinctive role within the travel industry. We operate as the embedded, neutral execution layer at the core of the travel ecosystem. We are also the system of record that understands how travel operates day to day. In this context, we see a clear opportunity for Amadeus to attach the orchestrator that new players such as digital assistants and AI-driven services rely on to operate effectively within travel. Our technology is deeply integrated into real operational processes, connecting travel suppliers, sellers, and increasingly AI-enabled interfaces. This depth of integration is what allows AI to move beyond experimentation and operate reliably within real workflows. Just as importantly, we deliver this at global scale, with high levels of reliability, integrity, and trust. This combination of deep integration, scalability, and operational discipline continues to differentiate Amadeus within the industry. During the first quarter, we continue to make progress on our AI strategy with a core focus on embedding AI into concrete operational use cases. We successfully tested our voice-based agent for airline call centers with an airline. This supports travelers end-to-end, allowing them to change existing flight bookings review alternative flight options, complete payments, and update their bookings seamlessly without leaving the conversation. It also enables natural multilingual conversations across multiple customer touchpoints. This agentic AI conversational commerce solution is the result of a close collaboration between Amadeus and Microsoft, combining Amadeus technology and travel expertise with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Infrastructure. Deploying this type of agentic AI in live customer service environment provides a clear illustration of how AI can deliver practical value when it is deeply integrated into core systems. We are also engaging with Google to jointly explore innovation opportunities to deliver travelers more relevant and context-aware recommendations. We recently revealed a use case at Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas showcasing how the combination of Google Cloud Gemini, Google Maps and Amadeus can unlock more intelligent and hyper-personalized traveler experiences. In this use case, Amadeus remains responsible for the core recommendation logic and decisioning, while Google Maps is used to enrich results with deeper local context. With our role as a system of reckoning travel, Amadeus can provide authorized access to relevant travel content so it can be integrated seamlessly across platforms like Gemini and Google Maps. We are also involving Amadeus Hay, our travel engagement solution for travel sellers by exploring new agentic AI capabilities. It is designed to deliver connected, responsive and intuitive experiences across the travel journey. Amadeus Hay is evolving through collaboration with Amazon Web Services. As part of this work, we are exploring a specialized agent that could understand trip context, anticipate traveler needs and automatically complete tasks on the traveller's behalf. For example, with the traveller's consent, a checking agent could detect when checking opens and automatically complete this process, applying the traveller's preferences, such as seat preference, and seamlessly delivering a digital boarding pass to the traveller. This quarter, we also launched LISA, an AI-powered sales assistant, to support hotels interested in using Link Hotel an Amadeo solution that connects independent hotels to travel sellers through GDSs and aggregators. Litsa enhances Amadeo's sales processes from the very first customer interaction by providing instant multilingual responses and guiding prospectus customers through details and onboarding processes. This improves response times, consistency, and overall partner experience and increases operational efficiency. This work demonstrates how AI can be applied in a practical and responsible way to deliver more relevant real-world travel experiences, and it reinforces Amadeo's central role within the travel ecosystem. We are embedding AI into core traveler processes, scaling it responsibly, and reinforcing our position as the trusted neutral technology backbone and platform of the travel industry. Now we'll pass on to Carol for our financial overview.

Thanks, Louise. In Q1, we saw strong financial performance delivering high single-digit growth across revenue, adjusted EBIT and adjusted diluted EPS at constant currency, coupled with steady free cash flow generation. This performance resulted from a strong start to the year across all segments, followed by moderation of volumes in March due to the ongoing Middle East situation. We saw resilience in our revenue streams despite the moderation of volumes due to the role that we play in providing disruption-related services and processes. In the quarter, foreign exchange effects impacted our results negatively, reducing our revenue, EBIT and EPS growth. We display our performance versus previous year also at constant currency to facilitate your understanding of Amadeus' underlying financial performance. Revenue amounted to 1,683 million, representing 8% constant currency growth. Reported growth was 3%. Adjusted EBIT increased to 500 million, equal to 7% growth at constant currency, 5% reported growth. Adjusted diluted EPS expanded by 9% at constant currency. Free cash flow amounted to 274 million euros, equaling 5% growth. Diluted EPS was 83 cents, 5% growth. We deployed R&D investment of 335 million in the quarter, equivalent to 20% of revenue. Leverage was at one times net debt to EBITDA at the end of March. And we continue executing on our 500 million share repurchase program. In Q1, our group revenue grew by 3.1% on a reported basis or by 7.9 at constant currency. Despite the Middle East situation, we delivered growth across all segments. Air IT solutions delivered a particularly strong performance, growing by 12%. Hospitality and other solutions continued on its trajectory, growing by 9.8%, and air distribution delivered 4.6% growth in the quarter. At constant currency, our adjusted EBIT grew 6.6%, and adjusted EBIT margin was 29%, 0.4 percentage points below prior year. On a reported basis, adjusted EBIT grew 4.5%, driven by the growth I've just previously described, and a cost evolution consisting of the following. Cost of revenue increasing by 4% fundamentally driven by an increase in transactions in wholesale distribution bookings and in payments due to the B2B wallet expansion as well as from regional and customer mixes. Fixed cost growth of 0.2% mostly resulting from higher unitary personnel costs and transaction processing costs from volumes expansion and prior year ramp up in our migration to the cloud offset by resource decreases following the completion of our migration to the cloud at end of 2025, and cost containment measures in response to the Middle East geopolitical situation. Ordinary DNA expense increased by 7.8% as a result of higher amortization of our internally developed software to continue to maintain our leadership position. So now let's review the performance of our operating segments. starting with our Air IT Solutions business. Air IT Solutions revenue increased strongly in the quarter by 12% at constant currency, driven by Amadeus PB's increasing by 3.1% and a higher revenue per PB of 8.6%. Revenue per PB experienced strong growth in the quarter, primarily due to PB-linked performance, such as continued upselling of our solutions, such as revenue management, digital commerce, dynamic pricing and Altea NDC. Incremental revenues from our Amadeus Nevio portfolio, renewals and inflation. Secondly, transactional non-PB linked performance, such as digital commerce, Amadeus ticket changer and direct distribution, partly due to an increase in transactions linked to the air traffic disruption caused by the situation in the Middle East. And thirdly, non-transactional performance such as our fast-growing airline professional services. Our PB evolution in the quarter was slightly moderated by the air traffic disruption experienced in some Middle Eastern countries in March. due to heightened geopolitical instability in the region. Excluding the Maya region, our PBs grew by 3.9% in the quarter, an acceleration versus prior quarter partly due to traffic redistribution from the Middle East. In April, PB growth has slowed relative to growth in March and in Q1, also reflecting some Easter seasonality effects and airline strikes. In Q1, we continued to partner with airlines, airports and border authorities around the globe. It has also been pleasing to receive positive feedback from our customers thanking us for our efforts in assisting with their disruption activity during the early stages of the Middle East situation. We continue to see great success with our revenue management solutions. Among others, Azerbaijan Airlines, the national carrier of Azerbaijan, has signed the Network Revenue Management Solution and Alaska Airlines, one of the largest U.S. carriers, is in the process of implementing it. We also broadened the scope of solutions adopted by New Sky's customers, such as Vueling, that selected Navitair Edge Shopping Service and Azul Minas Arias that contracted for the Navitair Dynamic Pricing, and we expanded our agreements with Air Canada and Tap Air Portugal for professional services. In airport IT, we continue to expand our presence across Asia Pacific, North America, the Middle East, and Europe. Several airports and public authorities in the Philippines, the Middle East, and North America will adopt our AI-enabled biometric technologies, and London City Airport and Swiss Airport in Europe will adopt airport cloud use service. Now on to hospitality and other solutions. Hospitality and other solutions revenue grew by 9.8% at constant currency in Q1. Revenue growth was driven across both hospitality and payments due to new customer implementations and increased transaction volumes. Within hospitality, the fastest growing solutions were customer implementations of our central reservation system and hotel distribution. And in payments, both our merchant services and our payout services reported strong growth. We continued our commercial success worldwide, spanning across our portfolio. We signed new agreements with customers such as Visit Hungary, Moonstone Hotel Properties, and El Palo Barcelona for media solutions, and RoomX and Travelers AI for hotel distribution. Demonstrating the interconnection of our solutions, Saudia became the first airline to contract digital media, and the University of Warwick and Aramark Sports and Entertainment UK selected Delphi. In payments, British Airways implemented Outpace's end-to-end payment orchestrator. Notably, as well, Etihad Airways and Air Link signed for FXbox, a solution that enables travel companies to control how prices are converted, displayed and settled across multiple currencies throughout the payment flow. Additionally, Saudia will use Amadeus' professional services to implement Amadeus payment solutions. We also expanded B2B wallet customer base with several travel seller signatures. And finally, on to air distribution. Air distribution revenue increased by 4.6% in Q1 at constant currency, driven by revenue per booking growth of 4.8%, in line with what we delivered in Q4 and prior year, resulting from the positive pricing effects such as from renewals, new agreements and inflation. Amadeus bookings declined slightly in the quarter by 0.2%. Whilst our booking performance up to February was strong, accelerating relative to Q4, our March booking evolution was impacted by the Middle East situation. This caused a reduction in air traffic to and from the impacted countries, as well as a deceleration in new bookings and an increase in booking cancellations, for routes flying in and out or stopping over the countries involved in the Middle East situation. We estimate that our bookings grew by close to 4% in the quarter, excluding the Middle East impact. During the quarter, we continued to see commercial gains across the regions. In April, we have seen an improving trend for bookings. While bookings are still below prior year, performance is better than in March, as cancellation rates have started to improve. In Q1, we broadened our airline content offering through Amadeus Travel Platform with Jet2.com and Arojet. We signed several contracts with travel sellers for content distribution, including five new customers in Greater China and AI Aviation in Malaysia, and with several corporations for SciTrick Easy, such as Baylor Gifford. Now let's move on to R&D. Our R&D investment amounted to $335 million in the first quarter, equivalent to 20% of our revenue and representing a 6.1% decline relative to prior year, following the completion of migration of our systems to the public cloud at the end of last year. We continue to prioritise investment in R&D to deliver our organic growth, maintaining our leadership position. We are proud of the commitment that we make to remaining relevant for our customers and ensuring that emerging technologies, such as AI, continue to enrich our entire portfolio. Half of our investment was dedicated to the expansion of our portfolio, as well as the evolution of our solutions and AI capabilities, including Amadeus Nevio and Navatex Stratos for Airlines, our hospitality platform, NDC technology for airlines, travel sellers and corporations, and solutions for airports and payment services. A third was dedicated to customer implementations across our business, such as Marriott, International and Accor for ACRS, new Nevio customers and airline portfolio upselling and customers implementing NVC technology, as well as efforts related to bespoke professional services provided to our customers. And the remainder was dedicated to our partnerships with Microsoft and Google and the development of our internal technology systems. Capital expenditure also decreased by 15.2%, largely reflecting the completion of the migration of our systems to the cloud, and represented 10.5% of revenue. In Q1, we generated €274 million of free cash flow, 4.5% ahead of last year, as a result of our EBITDA expansion and lower capital expenditure. This was partially offset by a higher change in working capital outflow and higher interest and tax payments. Net debt amounted to €2,586 million at the end of March, €445 million higher than at the end of December 2025, fundamentally due to the acquisition of Treasury shares under our share repurchase programs and the dividend payment, as well as the acquisition of Skylink, which we announced last and partially offset by our free cash flow generation. Our leverage was one times net debt EBITDA at the end of March within our targeted leverage range. So please turn to slide 16 for a recap on our views on our outlook and final remarks. Despite the impact from the Middle East situation from March, Amadeus reported a strong performance in the first quarter, demonstrating the resilience of revenue streams not linked to volume. Our revenue expansion was supported by underlying volume growth beyond the disrupted traffic and the booking cancellation increase coupled with solid unitary revenue metrics evolution, incremental disruption revenues and healthy performance of our hospitality and payments businesses. In April, the booking evolution has improved supported by a softening in the level of booking cancellations although they are still below prior year. The PB trend has however decelerated, likely reflecting the slowdown in bookings we saw in March due to the Middle East situation. We are assuming booking growth will be negative in Q2 and PB growth will be weaker than it was in Q1. It is difficult to predict as the situation still remains uncertain. Our PBs in April were also impacted by airline strakes strikes in Western Europe and customer mix. We are closely monitoring the macro and geopolitical context and are taking a prudent approach with cost containment measures in place. We are currently expecting to deliver within our guided expectations for 2026 based on our assumptions of booking growth recovery in the second half and global air traffic growth of 3% in the year. And I would like to end our presentation today with our value proposition. We are a large-scale, mission-critical travel technology leader. We have deep, long-standing customer relationships at global scale. We have a robust financial framework and a resilient business model. We have a unique and diverse talent base empowered by a cohesive team culture, all of which gives us confidence in our solid growth prospects for the coming years and remain focused on driving value creation for our customers, employees, and shareholders, delivering strong operating and financial performance into the midterm. With this, we've finished the presentation, and we can now open the call for any questions that you might have. Thank you.