Sabre's corporate travel air booking volume grew between 3% and 4% year over year in the third quarter, helping to drive a 5% growth in distribution revenue for the quarter, the company said in its earnings report.
Total distribution revenue for the quarter was $551 million, up $26 million compared with the third quarter of 2023, which Sabre said was due to an increase in bookings as well as a 1% year-over-year increase in the average booking fee. Global net bookings increased 4% year over year to 93 million, with air distribution bookings up 3% and hotel distribution bookings up 9%.
"This acceleration in air bookings growth was fueled by the implementation of commercial wins, continued growth in corporate travel and an improvement in Asia group bookings," Sabre president and CEO Kurt Ekert said in an earnings call on Thursday. "We expect our year-on-year air distribution bookings growth to continue building momentum as we enter 2025."
He later added that both corporate and leisure demand remain "pretty strong across all geographies."
Sabre claimed a 34.7% share of air distribution industry bookings in the quarter, an increase of 0.5 percentage points year over year and the seventh quarter in a row that its share has grown, according to Ekert. The company expects "to achieve further air distribution industry share gains from our strong commercial pipeline and contract wins that have yet to be implemented," including a multi-year distribution agreement announced with World Travel last week, he said.
Beyond distribution, Sabre's IT Solutions revenue declined 5% year over year to $140 million in the third quarter, which stemmed from "previously disclosed de-migrations," Sabre CFO Mike Randolfi said. A growth in passengers boarded from Sabre's existing customers offset that decline somewhat, according to the company.
Randolfi said IT revenue should return to a growth pattern next year with its SabreMosaic retailing platform,with customers Virgin Australia and Riyadh Air already announced.
"As you look at the next few quarters going forward, we're probably in the $140 [million] to $145 million dollar range," he said, "but at some point during 2025, I expect it to start to inflect up meaningfully and start to see more growth in the revenue stream."
Sabre Hospitality Solutions revenue increased 7% year over year to $84 million during the quarter. A 2% year-over-year growth in central reservation system transactions drove part of that increase, according to Sabre.
Executives did not discuss Sabre's pending sale of corporate booking tool GetThere to Serko, announced earlier this week, during the call.
Sabre's total third-quarter revenue increased 3% year over year to $765 million. The company reported a net loss of $63 million for the quarter, an improvement from a $212 million loss in the third quarter of 2023.
Source: Business Travel News