Sabre: Upbeat on First-Quarter Earnings
by Michele McDonald /Sabre CEO Tom Klein said he is “feeling very good” about the company’s direction as he discussed the company’s first-quarter earnings with analysts.
Sabre reported net income of $49 million, compared to $22 million in the first quarter of 2014, on revenue of $710.3 million, up 6.6%.
Although Sabre’s Airline and Hospitality Solutions business accounted for less than half its total revenue, it is the faster growing unit of the company, with a year-over-year 15.9% rise in revenue. Revenue from Sabre Travel Network, which includes the GDS and GetThere, grew 3.3%.
Air bookings through the GDS grew 2.7% during the quarter, to 91.4 million. Non-air bookings grew 3%, to 14 million. Sabre’s GDS market share grew slightly from 35.4% to 35.7%.
'Consistent theme'
Klein said Sabre Travel Network maintained a “consistent theme” entering 13 new markets in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
“We’ve also grown share in traditional markets like Germany,” he said. “We grew almost 10 times faster than the market in Europe. We’re knocking on doors everywhere in the world.”
Sabre Travel Network expects revenue growth of 4% or more for the full year, driven by bookings growth of about 3%.
Klein also announced that Brazil’s TAM will migrate to the SabreSonic Customer Sales & Service system, joining its sister airlines in the LATAM Group.
Highlights
Highlights of the first quarter included Wyndham Hotel Group’s announcement that 7,500 of its properties will migrate to Sabre’s SynXis Central Reservations System, replacing its problematic home-grown system.
Wyndham is the largest hotel company in the world, and the migration will be the largest ever.
Sabre also noted the full-market rollout of Customer Experience Manager, a data-driven software solution designed to enable airlines to use traveler insights to deliver a personalized experience.
For example, airlines can promote targeted ancillary products such as Wi-Fi based on past history or propensity to buy, or reward a high-value passenger with a seat upgrade in the case of a flight delay or service disruption.