Air bookings showed recovery in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Sabre. And while they fell again in January, booking trends are again improving this month.
On the company's fourth-quarter earnings call Tuesday, CEO Sean Menke pointed out the sequential improvement of net air bookings in the latter part of 2020: Bookings were down 81% in October, then 79% in November, then 77% in December. All regions showed quarter-over-quarter improvement.
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"In the month of January, the pace of improvement slowed due to a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, lockdowns and increased travel restrictions," Menke said. "However, daily average booking trends through mid-February are tracking higher than January results and are back in line with 2020 exit levels."
North America specifically was doing better in February, ahead of booking levels at the end of 2020, Menke added.
Menke believes that, as travelers gain confidence, they will begin traveling again. This was evidenced by increases in booking levels in the summer of 2020. Winter spikes in Covid-19 cases caused a decline in travel volume, but those bookings are ticking back up with hotels recovering first. Menke said that could be indicative of travelers willing to drive to a destination, but not fly.
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"We expect further increases in traveler confidence to come from Covid-19 vaccination and testing," he said.
According to Menke, North America -- Sabre's largest market -- will likely recover ahead of Europe, where tighter travel restrictions and greater fragmentation will slow travel's recovery. He believes domestic travel will recover first. The fact that Sabre has an 80% share of travel management companies' North American business should benefit the company, he said.
Fourth-quarter revenue was down 67% at $314 million, compared with $941 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, attributable to the lack of travel demand due to the coronavirus crisis.
Sabre operated at a loss of $220 million in the quarter, compared with its reported operating income of $58 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Sabre attributed that drop to the pandemic as well as $14 million in abandonment charges after the closure of some office locations and a $9 million impairment charge related to software developed for internal use.
Sabre's net loss totaled $311 million, compared with net income of $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.
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.