Sabre Travel Network has launched in Europe an air shopping and pricing platform called Sabre Air. As the company claims the platform is based on quick ‘open systems’ technology and integrated with all…
Sabre Travel Network has launched in Europe an air shopping and pricing platform called Sabre Air. As the company claims the platform is based on quick ‘open systems’ technology and integrated with all Sabre GDS booking tools, Sabre Air helps travel agencies find the best fare options for their clients more efficiently. The company has also launched Sabre MyFares, a new fare management system that enables agencies to quickly and easily load their private fares into the Sabre GDS.
Sabre Travel Network’s European senior vice-president, Richard Adams, said Sabre Air improved low-fare searching by displaying more choices and delivering more alternative itineraries with different fare options.
Following the launch of Sabre Air in the US last year, an independent study conducted by Topaz International revealed that US agents who use Sabre Air found the lowest fares as much as 21 times more often than other GDSs. In addition, when finding the lower fares, Sabre Air delivered an average of approximately 50% more in savings.
Another key component of Sabre Air is Sabre MyFares, a new fare management system. “This will be of particular benefit to agents who serve the corporate market, where productivity and customer response times are critical. By combining Sabre MyFares with our leading low fare shopping capabilities, agents have easy access to their preferred content, as well as to the best tools to comparison shop across both published and private fares,” Adams said. Since November 2005 Sabre Travel Network has been undertaking a global technology conversion project to move Sabre Connected agents from proprietary mainframe standards to the more flexible and robust open systems platform. Over 28,000 Sabre Connected agency locations across Europe and the Middle East have been successfully upgraded to Sabre Air, including agents in countries such as Russia, Jordan and Yemen. This follows the conversion last year of 27,000 travel agency locations in North America.
Adams said: “This milestone, which marks one of the world’s most comprehensive technology conversions, is a result of significant product investment and resource allocation. As a result our agency customers can take even more advantage of the full content provided by our airline partners.”
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