Sabre Sees Positive Position Once Business Travel Resumes
Executive forecasts stronger recovery for North America than Europe >>
by: Harvey Chipkin
Sabre sees business travel recovering more slowly than leisure but believes it will be in a good position to respond to that recovery because of strong relationships with travel management companies, according to CEO Sean Menke, speaking on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. He said that those TMC strengths and Sabre’s 80% share of TMC business in North America “should help us be an early beneficiary when business travel resumes.” Menke said the company expects Europe to recover more slowly due to greater fragmentation and tighter travel restrictions. Fortunately, he said, North America is the company’s biggest footprint. In 2019, 55% of its GDS bookings were North America-based, said Menke, and the company has renewed deals with its largest customers in the region and recently signed a new distribution agreement with Southwest. During the call, Menke noted the sequential improvement of net air bookings at the end of 2020, with bookings down 81% year-over-year in October, 79% in November and 77% in December. While they fell in January, he said, booking trends are again improving this month. For the full year of 2020, Sabre's revenue was down 66% at $1.3 billion. It recorded a net loss of $1.28 billion compared with net income of $159 million in 2019.
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