Sabre Corp. Lays Off 900 Employees

Sabre Corp. said yesterday it will cut its workforce by more than 900 workers and cease hiring for some positions in an effort to recover from a $6.5 million second-quarter loss.

In its second-quarter earnings call, the Southlake, TX-based GDS said the downsizing, along with other cost-cutting measures, will result in $110 million in savings by next year. Most of the layoffs are in management positions, at the vice-president level and above.

“It’s a tough decision,” said Sabre CEO Sean Menke. “This is a year of transition,” intended to transform Sabre into a more competitive business with a leaner organization.

“We continued to make good progress across a number of key initiatives, including strengthening the senior leadership team, insourcing our shopping complex and Global Network Operations Center, accelerating the development of our next-generation hospitality property management system and undertaking a thorough review of our Airline Solutions portfolio,” Menke said.

But the company faces issues. It reduced its profitability expectations going forward, citing a combination of factors, including: its decision to halt work on the implementation of its SabreSonic reservation system by airberlin; higher stability, security and technology costs related to a security incident in the Sabre Hospitality central reservation system; and accounting changes to its revenues from Alitalia, which is in the middle of a “bankruptcy-like process.”

Sabre’s revenues were up 6.6%, to $900.7 million for the quarter, ahead of analyst forecasts.