Talks break down between Sabre and Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines fares will no longer be bookable in the Sabre GDS, beginning Sept. 1. 

Each party is blaming the other for a failure to reach a content agreement. 

“Despite the positive and constructive approach Turkish Airlines has shown in continuing its participation in Sabre under similar conditions as with our other GDS partners, this effort has not been reciprocated by Sabre,” Cemal Kaya, the airline’s general manager for Los Angeles and Denver, wrote in an email to travel advisors. 

Turkish Airlines inventory will remain available “on other GDS platforms,” Kaya wrote. 

Related: Turkish Airlines envisions having 20 U.S. gateways

A statement from Sabre offered the opposite perspective.

“Despite Sabre’s intense efforts, we have not been able to reach mutually beneficial and commercially reasonable terms, and Turkish Airlines has decided to discontinue distributing its content through Sabre,” said Sabre.

Turkish plans to launch its New Distribution Capability (NDC) program, TK Connect, in October. Turkish intends to implement a surcharge for legacy GDSs bookings and remove some low-fare content from those systems. 

Turkish’s NDC content is slated to be available to travel advisors who use the Amadeus and Travelport reservation systems as well as other third-party aggregators, according to Turkish’s announced plans. The content will also be available via direct connect and a Turkish Airlines booking portal.

Amadeus declined to provide an update Wednesday. According to corporate travel newsletter The Beat, Amadeus president of travel Decius Valmorbida said during the company’s Q2 earnings call that negotiations with Turkish for a new content agreement were ongoing. 

Travel Weekly has also reached out to Travelport for an update on the status of its content agreement with Turkish. 

Both Turkish and Sabre said they still hope to reach an agreement to restore the airline’s flight inventory.