Big client wins give Sabre a rosy outlook for 2025

Sabre reported a 4% year-over-year increase in global bookings in the fourth quarter, and the company expects “significant volume growth” in air distribution this year, Sabre president and CEO Kurt Ekert said in an earnings call on Thursday.

Ekert said Sabre’s commercial team during 2024 signed new business totaling 30 million to 40 million in air distribution segments, which he said bodes well for 2025 performance.

“In 2025, we expect double-digit growth for air distribution bookings, hotel distribution bookings and hospitality solutions [central reservation system] transactions,” Ekert said. “We expect the majority of growth in air distribution bookings will come from a number of signed but not yet fully implemented agreements, including the largest Korean [online travel agency] as well as World Travel Inc.”

Ekert also said that Sabre landed “a rapidly growing top five agency in North America focused on the loyalty and credit card space.”

World Travel Inc. (No. 18 on Travel Weekly’s Power List) last October said that Sabre would displace Travelport as its primary GDS.

Sabre’s Q4 global bookings totaled 81 million, and its average fee per booking increased 1%, to $6.17. That growth boosted Sabre’s Q4 distribution revenue 5%, to $500 million. Total revenue for its travel solutions group was up 4%, to $645 million.

For the full year of 2024, Sabre’s global bookings totaled 363 million, up 2% from 2023, and its average booking fee was up 3%, to $5.98. Distribution revenue for the full year increased 6%, to $2.2 billion.

Sabre’s hospitality solutions business reported revenue of $81 million for the fourth quarter, up 8% year over year. That was driven by an increase in CRS transactions, in part due to new customer deployments, according to Sabre.

Sabre’s total revenue for the fourth quarter increased 4%, to $714.7 million. Sabre reported a net loss of $74.7 million for the quarter.

Source: Business Travel News