Sabre Corporation
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Travel technology, Global distribution systems |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | American Airlines |
| Headquarters | Southlake, Texas , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Sean Menke (Executive Chair), Kurt Ekert (CEO) |
| Products | Sabre Global Distribution System, Sabre Travel Solutions, Sabre Hospitality Solutions |
| Website | www |
Sabre Corporation, based in Southlake, Texas, stands as the foremost supplier of global distribution systems (GDS) for airline reservations. Its principal offering, the Sabre Global Distribution System, links travel providers such as airlines and hotels with travel agents, delivering instantaneous availability and pricing essential for corporate travel management.
Established by American Airlines in 1960, Sabre became an independent entity in 2000 following a corporate spin-off. In 2007, ownership transferred to private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners. The company subsequently launched its public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2014.
Sabre's main competitors include Amadeus IT Group and Travelport, who operate the Amadeus CRS and Galileo GDS, respectively.
Early history
The origins of Sabre trace back to 1953 when C.R. Smith, then president of American Airlines, collaborated with IBM representative Blair Smith to create Sabre (Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment), modeled after IBM’s military real-time computing system SAGE. Founded in 1960 by American Airlines, Sabre deployed its inaugural reservation system at Briarcliff Manor, New York, utilizing IBM 7090 mainframes capable of handling 84,000 calls daily.
By 1964, Sabre had established the largest commercial real-time data-processing network worldwide, processing approximately 7,500 passenger bookings per hour by 1965. The system transitioned to IBM System/360 technology and relocated operations to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1972.
In 1976, Sabre extended its services to travel agencies, providing immediate access to flight information; by the end of that year, it was operational in 130 agency locations. The company introduced BargainFinder in 1984—the industry's pioneering automated low-fare search engine—and followed with eAAsySabre in 1985, enabling consumers to book flights, hotels, and car rentals via personal computers.
By 1989, Sabre commanded nearly 38% of the reservations market share. In 1996, it launched the online travel platform Travelocity. A joint venture formed in 1998 with Abacus International led to SabreSonic, a tailored reservations system designed for Abacus clients across Asia.
2000s
In 2000, AMR Corporation—American Airlines' parent company—divested its controlling interest in Sabre Corporation, rendering it an independent firm. The following year, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) acquired Sabre Holdings' airline hardware and communications division, prompting Sabre to migrate its air travel shopping and pricing platforms to HP NonStop and Linux servers. In 2005, Sabre broadened its online travel portfolio by purchasing lastminute.com.
Private equity groups Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners completed their acquisition of Sabre in March 2007. The company expanded further with acquisitions such as Calidris in 2010—a revenue integrity and business intelligence specialist—and SoftHotel in 2011, a provider of cloud-based property management solutions. In 2012, Sabre introduced the Sabre Red App Centre to diversify its product ecosystem.
Sabre went public on NASDAQ under the ticker SABR in April 2014, with an initial valuation near $3.93 billion. That year also saw the acquisition of hospitality technology firm Genares. Later in 2014, Bravofly Rumbo Group purchased lastminute.com from Sabre’s European online travel division.
In January 2015, Sabre divested the Travelocity brand to Expedia for $280 million and expanded its global distribution capabilities by acquiring Abacus International in July 2015—securing long-term contracts with eleven Asian carriers.
CEO Tom Klein announced his departure effective at the end of 2016. In October 2019, Sabre acquired Radixx for $110 million to strengthen its passenger service software solutions targeting small and low-cost airlines.
October 2021 marked the sale of Sabre’s AirCentre portfolio to CAE Inc. for $392.5 million. Continuing strategic growth through acquisitions, Sabre purchased Nuvola—a hotel and service optimization software provider—in May 2022 and later acquired UK-based payments company Conferma Pay in August of the same year.
In March 2023, leadership adjustments occurred as part of Sabre’s long-term succession strategy: Sean Menke assumed sole Executive Chair responsibilities while Kurt Ekert stepped into the CEO position.
Looking forward to 2025, Sabre committed to a multi-year $1.56 billion collaboration with Indian IT firm Coforge aimed at driving AI-powered innovation throughout its worldwide operations.
Operations
The organization is based in Southlake, Texas and maintains additional offices located in London, Kraków, Bangalore, Montevideo, and Singapore. By December 2013, it was handling close to 85,000 data transactions each second for its clients, supporting 70 airlines and over 100,000 hotels. Sabre's operations are divided into two main sectors: Sabre Travel Solutions and Sabre Hospitality Solutions.
Acquisitions
- Preview Travel (2000)
- Dillion Communication Systems (2000)
- Gradient Solutions (2000)
- GetThere (2000)
- Sabre Pacific (2001)
- Nexion Inc. (2003)
- David R. Bornemann Associates (2001)
- Site59 (2001)
- Resfeber Scandinavia (2002)
- Kiehl Hendrickson Group (2002)
- axsResource Airport Resource Management Solutions (2003)
- World Choice Travel (2003)
- RM Rocade (2004)
- Showtickets.com (2004)
- SynXis Corporation (2004)
- Southwest Travel Systems (2005)
- IgoUgo.com (2005)
- Lastminute.com (2005)
- E-site Marketing (2007)
- Flight Explorer (2008)
- EB2 (2008)
- Calidris (2010)
- Flightline Data Services (2010)
- f:wz (2010)
- SoftHotel (2011)
- Prism (2012)
- Genares (2014)
- Abacus International (2015)
- Trust International (2015)
- Airpas Aviation (2016)