Amadeus quarterly profit soars 30 percent

Spain's Amadeus, the world's biggest processor of travel bookings, on Friday announced second-quarter net profits of 164.6 million euros ($200.9 million), up 30.3 percent on the same period last year.

In the April-June period, sales rose by 8.8 percent to 744.7 million euros, while operating profits rose 6.8 percent to 299.7 million.

The results came on the back of increased bookings and reduced costs, the company said.

Half-year net profits came in at 332.5 million euros, 26.1 percent on the year, "due principally to the substantial reduction in interest expense", the company said.

This was backed by sales growth of 8.6 percent to 1.509 billion euros and a 6.1 percent rise in operating profits to 606.9 million euros, it added.

"Despite the ongoing challenges of the global economic environment, this has been a successful first half of the year and we have continued our growth record. At the financial level," chief executive Luis Maroto said.

On Thursday, the International Air Transport Association said the growth in passenger markets had slowed since the beginning of the year, and freight market gains had been mostly weak.

(c) 2012 AFP