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London – Sabre Corporation, which offers travel technology solutions, reported its second quarter 2016 financial results recently.
Sabre is headquartered in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas in the US and processes more than $120bn of travel spend annually, serving customers in more than 160 countries around the world. It has nearly 10 000 employees globally.
“Sabre second quarter results build on our growing and consistent track record of solid execution,” said Tom Klein, Sabre president and chief executive officer.
“While the macro environment has offered little upside, our results demonstrate our ability to grow as we capitalize on strong demand for our Airline and Hospitality Solutions SaaS portfolio and as Travel Network continues to expand globally.”
The company reports results in two business segments: Travel Network, a global travel marketplace that connects more than 425 000 travel agents in more than 160 countries with airlines, hotels, car hire, cruise lines, tour operators and other travel suppliers across the world, and the Airline and Hospitality Solutions business, which provides technology software solutions and consulting to the global airline and hospitality industries.
For the second quarter 2016, highlights included travel network revenue which rose 21% with bookings growth of 24%, driven by the now wholly-owned Asia-Pacific region and incremental growth in all other regions. In the Airline and Hospitality Solutions business, revenue increased 16%.
There was also strong growth in the SabreSonic reservations system that it provides to airlines around the world, with 200 million passengers boarded – a growth of 43% year-over-year. Passengers boarded growth was driven by a mix of new implementations and 6% organic growth in the existing customer base.
Growth in Airline Solutions was also driven by increased revenue from the AirVision and AirCentre solutions suites which provide airlines with tools to improve efficiency, control costs and manage change. Strong Sabre Hospitality Solutions growth, both organic and acquisition-related, also contributed to the revenue increase.
Sabre Hospitality Solutions acquired German-based Trust Group, which has expanded its hospitality footprint in both EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and Asia-Pacific, and it continues to migrate the properties of the Wyndham Hotel Group – a hospitality company with more than 7 500 properties – onto its reservations platform.
In EMEA, the long-term trajectory of Travel Network share gains continues with another quarter of year-over-year growth and market share gains. The company continues to look for opportunities to build its presence in new markets like South Africa, Spain and Turkey.
Travel Network bookings in Latin America turned mildly positive in the quarter, increasing 1.5%, including a return to modest growth in Venezuela and Brazil. In Asia-Pacific, the end of the second quarter marks the anniversary of Sabre’s full ownership of that business in the region. Operations are largely integrated and sales progress has been strong with like-for-like Travel Network bookings growth of 9%.
Globally, Sabre’s share of GDS bookings remained relatively constant at 37%. The company also told investors on its quarterly conference call that it had signed renewals and expansions with several key customers.
