Amadeus Acquires SkyLink to Bolster AI in Travel

SkyLink, founded in 2021 by Atyab Bhatti and Kush Maheshwari, is an alumnus of the Y Combinator Winter 2022 batch. The startup gained industry recognition as a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2026 and won The BTN Group's Innovation Faceoff in 2024. The New York-based firm's technology embeds a conversational AI assistant into enterprise chat platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. This allows employees to book and manage complex, policy-compliant travel itineraries using natural language, a system that has already processed tens of thousands of bookings. While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, this marks the 20th acquisition for Amadeus. The purchase is strategically aimed at expanding Amadeus's corporate travel footprint in North America. This acquisition is part of a broader AI strategy for Amadeus, which includes a previous minority investment in AI specialist Acai Travel. The company is focused on moving beyond AI concepts to deploying tangible use cases at scale across the travel ecosystem. SkyLink's CEO, Atyab Bhatti, stated the partnership will allow them to "deploy our technology faster and bring powerful new capabilities that benefit travelers and companies across the travel industry." Amadeus plans to extend SkyLink's conversational AI capabilities beyond corporate travel. The technology is slated for integration into its solutions for airlines, airports, and the hospitality sector. The integration will leverage Amadeus's massive scale, which includes operations in over 190 markets and the processing of billions of daily travel transactions. This vast dataset is expected to rapidly advance the AI's learning and capabilities.