N E W S / AV I AT I O N
AMADEUS SET TO TRANSFORM THE AIRPORT PASSENGER EXPERIENCE AMADEUS HAS ACQUIRED ICM AIRPORT TECHNICS TO STRENGTHEN ITS PASSENGER AUTOMATION AND SELF-SERVICE BAG DROP SOLUTIONS FOR AIRPORTS AND AIRLINES
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madeus has agreed to acquire ICM Airport Technics, a global leader in passenger automation and self-service bag drop solutions for airports and airlines, for an undisclosed sum. ICM, which is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, specialises in the provision of passenger automation and self-service bag drop solutions for customers principally in APAC and Europe. Since 2009, ICM has processed more than 75 million bags worldwide and is a global leader in providing airports with either retrofitted or replacement type Auto Bag Drop (ABD) units. ICM serves around 25 airports including some of the most 26
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important airports in the world. The company is also an early pioneer in biometrics for baggage processing. Following this deal, Amadeus is now in a stronger position in this sector to drive future growth. Smart airports continue to invest in improving capacity and efficiency whilst increasingly wanting only to work with strategic providers that can offer all of the components they need in one place. To this end Amadeus’ airport customers will now be able to enhance and improve their existing services to passengers whilst continuing to ensure passenger safety and security. Bruno Spada, Head of Airport IT at Amadeus says: “Often the passenger experience in airports is not a good one: long queues to check bags in and disparate services and technologies that do not always speak to each other. In essence, airports are crying out for open self-service solutions to help take the friction and hassle out of the airport experience for passengers. By combining Amadeus’ and ICM’s software and hardware capabilities, by accelerating and introducing more self-service options, and by using the power of biometrics, this deal announced today will ensure that together we can deliver better journeys for passengers in the future”. Spada continues: ‘ICM is a fantastic company and will be a perfect cultural fit for Amadeus. We will bring ICM’s technical know-how and strong