Amadeus reported a first-half 2024 net profit of 650.1 million euros, up 20.2% from 540.7 million euros in the same period the prior year, driven by double-digit growth across its diverse activity segments and a 2.9% rise in bookings. The company informed the National Securities Market Commission that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) reached 683.4 million euros between January and June, versus 560.3 million euros in 2023. This represents a 22% increase and highlights a strong operating performance for the period.
In addition, Amadeus saw ordinary revenues climb 13.4% in the first six months of 2024, reaching 3,052.6 million euros. The gains were fueled by higher sales across the Airline Distribution, Airline Industry Solutions, Hotels, and Other Solutions segments. The group reported EBITDA of 1,203 million euros, up 15% from 1,046.1 million in the first half of the prior year, with a margin of 39.4% for the period, 0.6 percentage points higher than the previous year.
From a financial perspective, free cash flow rose to 530.3 million euros, up 9.4%. Net financial debt stood at 2,594.7 million euros as of June 30, roughly 1.14 times trailing EBITDA. With these results, Amadeus chief executive officer Luis Maroto emphasized that the company continues to grow at a double-digit pace in the first half of the year and reaffirmed confidence in the annual targets.
“We are at the forefront of transforming airline retail distribution and are betting on NDC technology to further strengthen our leadership as a facilitator of indirect airline distribution,” Maroto stated. During the first half of 2024, acquisition-related costs for Vision-Box and Voxel totaled 3.1 million euros, while the second quarter added another 2.4 million euros. These expenses were recorded under other operating costs and affected EBITDA, profit and adjusted profit.
The headline shows a market that continues to normalize after a robust 2023. The airline distribution business posted a 10.7% revenue increase to 1,506 million euros, driven by higher reservation volumes up 2.9% and higher average revenue per reservation up 7.6%. Improvements in reservation mix, inflation effects, price adjustments, renewals, and new distribution agreements all contributed to the improved revenue per booking.
As anticipated, 2024 saw a normalization in the growth of reservations compared with 2023’s rebound year, Amadeus noted. During the semester, Western Europe and North America were the largest regions for reservations, accounting for 28.1% and 25.8% of Amadeus reservations respectively, while Asia-Pacific delivered the strongest performance with a 25.1% growth rate.
Around the other segments, technology solutions for the airline industry recorded a 17.6% rise in revenue, reaching 902.4 million euros. This growth was sustained by increases in boarded passengers, which rose 13.9% thanks to global air traffic expansion and the positive impact of implementations completed in 2023 and 2024. Notable client examples in 2023 included Etihad Airways, ITA Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, Bamboo Airways, and Allegiant Air, with Vietnam Airlines contributing in the second quarter of 2024. In the second quarter, British Airways, which had recently adopted the Nevio solution, also signed on to Amadeus Network Revenue Management.
In the first six months of 2024, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa regions posted the strongest results, with growth of 18% and 23.6% respectively. Yet Asia-Pacific and Western Europe still represented the largest shares of boarded passengers at 31.1% each. Hotels and other solutions revenue climbed to 429.2 million euros, up 13.2% versus the first half of 2023, reflecting growth across both hotels and payments segments.
Both the hotel area, which generates the majority of segment revenue, and the payments sector posted double-digit growth rates, supported by new client implementations and higher volumes. In hotels, the Accor hotel group announced it would deploy ACRS across its properties worldwide. In payments, Thai Airways engaged Outpayce’s Xchange payments platform, and Wakanow Group, a leading travel distributor in Africa, signed a new collaboration with Outpayce, embracing virtual payments offered by Outpayce B2B Wallet.
The ordinary shareholders meeting, held on June 6, approved a full-year dividend of 1.24 euros per share, which equates to 50% of the 2023 consolidated profit. This plan allocates a total of 558.6 million euros in dividends charged to 2023 results. Earlier, on January 18, a interim dividend of 0.44 euros per share was paid, totaling 193.4 million euros, and on July 4 a supplementary dividend of 0.80 euros per share was disbursed, totaling 348.5 million euros.
Additionally, on May 15, Amadeus launched a share repurchase program with a maximum outlay of 10.2 million euros and a cap of 146,000 shares, intended to support employee equity programs for Amadeus wholly owned subsidiary employees for 2024. By May 20, the program reached its maximum investment, with 146,000 shares purchased for a total of 9.5 million euros.