SABRE tips

TUI’s remote work policy, launched during the pandemic, is set to evolve as the travel giant looks to offer its staff free stays across its hotel and resort network.

Airbnb Posts Best Quarter Yet on Relentless Travel Demand: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says his company can thrive in boom and bust cycles if it keeps innovating. To meet that promise, his company will have to boost its pricing competitiveness and makes it easier for individuals to list properties. And make the case to Wall Street on unfair comparisons to 2021.

Sam Gilliland, who was the CEO of Sabre Corporation for 10 years, is taking the top role at Accelya.

In a bid to boost tourism’s contribution to the national gross domestic product to $122 billion a year by 2031, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched the UAE Tourism Strategy 2031 on Friday. Eyeing an annual increase of $7.4 billion, the tourism startegy aims to attract new investments of $27.2 billion to the tourism sector in the country, and attract 40 million hotel guests in 2031. The strategy includes 25 initiatives and policies to support the development of the tourism sector in the country, according to the government media office. With the return of tourists, the United Arab Emirates’ tourism revenues surpassed $5 billion in the first half of this year.

Mastercard is planning to make a minority investment in Conferma Pay, a fintech company acquired earlier this year by Sabre Corporation.

Rocked by a Covid relief financial scandal that led to the jailing and resignations of now-former CEO Fabio Cannavale and chief operating officer Andrea Bertoli, Amsterdam-based Lastminute.com’s shareholders elected Luca Concone as an executive director, and he’ll serve as CEO.

Especially heavy layoffs at Google Flights, including senior managers and engineers who joined Google with the ITA Software acquisition in 2011, could signal strategy shifts in the company’s multifaceted airline business, Skift has learned.

Despite uneven demand in 2022, Sabre expects continued overall recovery leading to positive free cash flow for the company by the end of this year. 

Caesars Entertainment is adding an online travel agency business model, as it launches a new website that lets guests books flights as well as their accommodation.

With just one month to go, there’s a lot of noise about American Airlines’ decision to hold back 40 percent of its fares, mostly for business travel, for so-called New Distribution Capability-powered channels and direct channels, such as its own website.

Travel technology giant Sabre said on Wednesday that Sean Menke, who has been CEO of the company since 2016, will become executive chair of its board on April 27, at which time its current president, Kurt Ekert, will become its CEO, too.

The inner workings of the travel industry are changing as different sectors look for less expensive means of doing business, and much of that change could have a negative impact on the longevity of Sabre and companies like it. 

American Airlines is going live with its New Distribution Capability offers with global distribution system Sabre on April 3, marking the point of no return for its removal of 40 percent of its airfares from traditional retail channels.

Panama’s Copa Airlines is increasing its surcharge for tickets issued in Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport from $12 to $18 per direction.

Corporate travel agencies are now seeing wide discrepancies in airfares after American Airlines overhauled its ticket distribution strategy.

Travel companies have been trying to knit together the fragmented pieces of the customer journey for years. 

It’s been a fortnight since the American Airlines’ airfare shakeup, and travel agencies continue to report fairly large discrepancies and some confusion — including a twist involving the carrier’s smaller hubs.

Potentially IPO-bound budget hotel operator and aggregator Oyo’s U.S. business has recorded a 48 percent revenue growth from bookings on its own platforms — such as the app, website, mobile web and call centers — in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. While Oyo’s app generated 99 percent growth, revenue from bookings via the company’s call centers reported a 59 percent surge for the quarter. Earlier this month, Oyo had announced its plans to add more than 100 hotels in the U.S. this year across the states of Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, its fastest-growing state. This is nearly double the number of hotels the company added to its portfolio in 2022. “While bookings through online travel agents such Booking.com and Expedia Group play an important role in increasing revenues for our hotel partners, direct demand through Oyo’s own platforms leads to better margins for our hoteliers,” said Gautam Swaroop, chief executive of Oyo International. Swaroop added that the company experienced a 3x growth in app conversions and 2x growth in conversions from the call center using price optimizations and by creating operational efficiencies, performance management and better incentive structures in the organization. An earlier Skift report had mentioned that Oyo is likely to launch the initial public offering around the Indian festival of Diwali in November, once it gets the approval from India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, May 5. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Sabre is cutting 15 percent of its workforce, part of an effort to save $200 million annually. 

Despite significantly higher airfares, domestic bookings in India surpassed pre-pandemic levels in March, while international travel reached 99.5 percent, according to travel technology provider Sabre’s booking data. Sabre expects international travel capacity to exceed pre-pandemic levels by the second quarter.