Sabre on Tuesday reported strong second-quarter financial
results, with a 9.3% increase in revenue from $900.7 million to $984.4 million,
largely attributed to growth in its Travel Network business.
Travel Network revenue grew 13.2%, to $719.7 million. The
Travel Network includes the GDS business.
Sabre said global bookings increased 7.6% in the quarter,
largely spurred by 23.5% growth in the Asia-Pacific region after Sabre
completed its conversion of Flight Centre Travel Group. Earlier this year,
Sabre said it was selected as global technology partner to Flight Centre, and
that its agents would be using the Sabre Red Workspace agent desktop.
In North America, bookings increased 5%, which CEO Sean
Menke attributed to the strength of brick-and-mortar agencies, particularly
travel management companies.
Sabre Airline Solutions' revenue fell 2.4% to $204.8
million, while Hospitality Solutions revenue increased 10.4% to $68.3 million.
Net income attributable to common stockholders increased to
$92.2 million in the second quarter, compared to a net loss of $6.5 million in
the second quarter of 2017.
During the call discussing Sabre's financial results,
several analysts asked about the company's recent announcement that it will
make Booking.com's 28 million listings available in the GDS later this year.
Menke said it is part of Sabre's effort to get more sources
of aggregated content, including alternative accommodations, into the GDS. He
said agents are looking for "more and more content."
To that end, Menke said Sabre is interested in working with
other potential sources for aggregated content that includes alternative
accommodations. He expects most sales of alternative accommodations will come
from travel management companies for business travelers.
According to Menke, the addition of Booking.com's content will
give agents a more "holistic" look at different rates for different
properties.
Sabre has said the listings agents will see can be sorted by
any rules necessary.