Amadeus profit takes off in first quarter as air travel recovers

MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish travel booking group Amadeus on Friday reported an adjusted first-quarter net profit of 95 million euros ($99.97 million) compared with a loss in the same period a year ago as pandemic-related travel restrictions were mostly lifted.

Even though the spread of the COVID-19's Omicron variant led to a new round of restrictions in late 2021 and early 2022, Amadeus said travel recovered quickly in February and March.

The company operates the world's largest travel booking system and offers check-in services and other IT solutions for airports and airlines.

Amadeus said it processed almost 92 million bookings during the quarter, a little more than half the pre-pandemic levels. Overall revenues during the quarter of 917 million euros were about 65% of the revenues registered in the first quarter of 2019.

Net profit, including non-recurring effects, was 81 million euros in the quarter, up from a net loss of 95 million euros, the company said.

The company's profit was slightly higher than the 79 million euros expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Amadeus, which accumulated hefty losses in 2020 and 2021 as the tourism industry was hit by travel restrictions enforced around the world, is finally seeing a return to normality as most countries have lifted travel curbs or are phasing them out.

The company first returned to profit in the third quarter of last year, but dipped again into the red in the fourth quarter as a result of Omicron restrictions.

($1 = 0.9503 euros)

(Reporting by Inti Landauro. Editing by Jane Merriman)