Sabre has reported revenue gains across its travel solutions,
distribution, IT solutions and hospitality for the first quarter of
2022.
Total revenue for the company came in at US$585 million versus US$327
million year-on-year, with an operating loss of US$80 million versus
the $203 million loss in Q1 2021.
Net income was reported as US$42 million, which was boosted by the
sale of AirCentre as well as increased Travel Solutions incentive
expenses and Hospitality Solutions transaction-related costs, compared
to the net loss of US$266 million in Q1 2021.
Sean Menke, CEO and chair of the board at Sabre, says: "We are
encouraged by the strengthening trends in our business and have seen
consistent sequential volume improvements in key metrics week over week
since mid-January 2022.
"After a slow start in January due to the Omicron variant, the travel
recovery accelerated sharply and bookings in April ended at the highest
level of recovery versus 2019 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The overall improvement in each global geographic region has been
particularly positive, supported by a significant return of more
profitable international and corporate travel.
"In addition, we continue to make progress toward our technology
transformation goals, which we expect to deliver significant savings and
expand revenue opportunities."
During an analyst call, Menke said that overall while domestic
leisure bookings have recovered more significantly than business, the
gap is closing.
"Travel trends are improving globally and our business mix is
normalising towards pre-pandemic levels, resulting in higher unit
profitability."
The recovery in business travel will be interesting to watch
especially in light of Sabre's plan to invest US$80 million in American
Express Global Business Travel in the second quarter.
The
strategy is part of its multi-year tech partnership between the two
companies to work on solutions that “will enable the future of corporate
travel distribution.”
The company also provided an update on its technology transformation
which is expected to result in a 30-35% return on investment.
After a slow start in January due to the Omicron variant, the travel recovery accelerated sharply and bookings in April ended at the highest level of recovery versus 2019 since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.– Sean Menke, CEO, Sabre
In 2022, the company says its two technology milestones are to "exit
our Sabre-managed data centers and migrate to the Google Cloud" as well
as to bring the customer reservations database to Google Cloud.
Revenue for the Travel Solutions business increased 85% to US$534
million, boosted by the increase in air and wider travel bookings as the
industry recovers from the pandemic.
Distribution revenue was up 126% to US$343 million, helped by the industry's recovery and an increase in average booking fees.
Global net bookings, minus cancellations, were 65 million passengers,
which represents 42% of 2019 levels. Revenue for the IT Solutions
business increased 39% to US$191 million driven by the recovery in
passengers boarded.
Hospitality Solutions revenue was up 33% to US$56 million boosted by the increase in central reservation system transactions.
The company says central reservation system transactions, which have
hit 100% of 2019 levels, were up 31% to 23 million for Q1 2022.
Source: PhocusWire