Travelport CEO Talks Recovery Outlook and Tech Investment in 2023

25.08.2023 - 14:19 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Greg Webb

Travelport is about three-quarters of the way toward a full recovery after the pandemic decimated the travel industry. 

Compared to 2019, Travelport ended 2022 with a recovery of its total volume of bookings at a percentage in mid-70s, Greg Webb, CEO of the U.K.-based global distribution system company, told Skift. 

In 2021, it had recovered just over 50 percent compared to 2019. 

Travelport — along with its two larger competitors, public companies Amadeus and Sabre — primarily act as marketplaces to connect airlines and travel agents, though they all are continually investing in new technology and broadening their business models. 

None of the three companies have fully recovered to 2019 numbers. Sabre reported a revenue recovery of about 67 percent during the third quarter of 2022, while Amadeus said it recovered about 87 percent during the same period. 

Webb shared an outlook about where Travelport is focused, particularly its tech investments, as the company continues its recovery this year. 

Webb expects to continue seeing a linear recovery going forward, largely guided by the return to full capacity for airlines. 

And that line is moving slowly. 

“I expect that fairly linear recovery to continue,” Webb said. “In 2023, the industry won’t recover to 100 percent for the full year. But as an exit point for 2023, we’ll get closer to that number.”

The slowest pieces to recover for airlines have been international and business travel. 

The lack of international travel has been closely tied to governmental regulations, he said, which can be seen in activity spikes following regulation changes. That’s promising for revenue growth as the world continues relaxing regulations — like China has done in the first part of the year. 

“We’re really seeing an increase in the volume of international travel. and we think that will continue,” Webb said. “China finally has moved off their Covid restriction structure that they had in place, and we saw an immediate impact to volume for both outbound and inbound travel to China.” 

As for business travel, he expects it is increasing based on the types of destinations being booked right now, the busiest time of year for bookings. 

At this time in 2022, the shopping activity was largely leisure-based, with bookings for places like beach destinations and ski resorts. This year, there appears to be more shopping activity for big city destinations, he said. 

“Which tends to make you believe that shopping activity is focused on corporate travel,” Webb said. 

Felix Dannegger, a consultant for the airline industry, questions whether business travel will ever return to where it had been. With talk in Europe, especially, of doing away with flights between destinations that could