4 ms·

No mention of the meltdown within GDS companies. GDSs, for those not aware, offer airlines anything from booking/pricing/interoperation services to full IT out

No mention of the meltdown within GDS companies. GDSs, for those not aware, offer airlines anything from booking/pricing/interoperation services to full IT outsourcing. These companies basically take a small fee out of every operation done by either Online Travel Agencies (OTA) or the airline itself. Even before the pandemic airlines were already pissed at these monsters (Travelport and Amadeus being the biggest contenders) that arguably they created, but now with the razor thin margins of airline travel, GDSs are either gonna take a big cut on their already reduced revenue, or the boot. For Amadeus, virtually all contractors (at least 1000 in one site, multiple thousands worldwide) have been dismissed overnight, and most hired staff are working reduced hours. I can only assume it's been the same for Travelport.

fogihujy 6y ago
I never even expected Amadeus to have that many employees at one single site. Well, if the GDS providers start failing then there's going to be an interesting mess to get out of.
- Uberphallus 6y ago
  > Amadeus is today the biggest company in Sophia Antipolis with 5000 employees from and consultants from around the world, working in R&D, as well as marketing and support. http://www.investincotedazur.com/en/tca-directory/155765/amadeus/ http://www.investincotedazur.com/en/tca-directory/155765/ama... That paragraph didn't age well. Roughly 30-40% of the workforce were consultants, so you can make the numbers. It's the wrong time if you wanted to look for a job in the area, estimates show there are about 1500 engineers without a mission or job, aggregated from all companies in Sophia. The fact that Air France has a site there too helped drive up the numbers, a senior manager I know is working 1 day per week till the end of the year, so you can imagine what happened below him.
  - speedgoose 6y ago
    I have quite a few friends who used to work for AirFrance as contractors. They simply stopped working for AirFrance.
tonyedgecombe 6y ago
GDS is an abbreviation of Global distribution system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_distribution_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_distribution_system

fogihujy 6y ago

I never even expected Amadeus to have that many employees at one single site. Well, if the GDS providers start failing then there's going to be an interesting mess to get out of.

Uberphallus 6y ago
> Amadeus is today the biggest company in Sophia Antipolis with 5000 employees from and consultants from around the world, working in R&D, as well as marketing and support. http://www.investincotedazur.com/en/tca-directory/155765/amadeus/ http://www.investincotedazur.com/en/tca-directory/155765/ama... That paragraph didn't age well. Roughly 30-40% of the workforce were consultants, so you can make the numbers. It's the wrong time if you wanted to look for a job in the area, estimates show there are about 1500 engineers without a mission or job, aggregated from all companies in Sophia. The fact that Air France has a site there too helped drive up the numbers, a senior manager I know is working 1 day per week till the end of the year, so you can imagine what happened below him.
- speedgoose 6y ago
  I have quite a few friends who used to work for AirFrance as contractors. They simply stopped working for AirFrance.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago

GDS is an abbreviation of Global distribution system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_distribution_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_distribution_system