Emirates in major deal with Sabre Travel Network

Sabre-connected travel agencies and corporations around the world will now get easy access to Dubai-based Emirates’ full content fares for the next 10 years through the Sabre global distribution system.

This has been made possible after Emirates signed a 10-year global airline distribution agreement with world-leading travel distribution provider Sabre Travel Network.

Among the world’s largest global distribution system (GDS) with a slew of corporate and online customers, Sabre Travel Network would enable Emirates to reach out to more corporate and leisure travellers using a multi-channel distribution strategy.

According to Keith Longstaff, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Worldwide, “in the past months, we have been working to align our distribution arrangements to support Emirates’ planned growth in terms of fleet and route expansion, particularly with the arrival of more A380 aircraft. Sabre, which enjoys global leadership in the corporate and online travel space, has an impressive breadth and depth of travel services across both traditional and emerging channels. We are confident that Sabre is an ideal partner to help us accelerate our global growth and support our fleet expansion plans, and look forward to working with them to achieve this using our combined strengths.”

Sabre Travel Network is a provider of comprehensive end-to-end solutions for corporate and leisure travel industry. The Sabre GDS is believed to the base for these solutions, providing a ready-built marketplace that connects travel suppliers, including hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, with more than 50,000 travel agency locations. Key brands of the network include GetThere, for corporate travel reservation technology; Nexion, a host agency; SynXis, for hotel reservation management, distribution and technology services; E-site marketing, specializing in online business solutions exclusively for the hospitality industry, Merlin, a leisure tour operator platform; TRAMS, mid- and back-office solutions and marketing services for travel agencies; and TRAMS Marketing Alliance (TMA), a marketing promotions services for leisure travel agencies.

Reacting to the new deal, Tom Klein, President, Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions said,  “the agreement cements the long-standing relationship with the Emirates Group and our desire to work together for mutual growth.  Not only are we uniquely positioned to help Emirates expand their global operations and reach through our extensive corporate and agency partnerships around the world, we also share the same philosophy on distribution, which is to optimise all possible distribution channels, explore new technology and develop innovative new channels.”