The Company Dime co-founder Jay Campbell last week interviewed Sabre CEO Kurt Ekert via videoconference. Among other issues, Ekert talked about supplier content fragmentation, global distribution system pricing, AI, technology modernization and, yes, NDC. A lightly edited transcript follows. Some travel managers look back fondly at a period a few years ago when it seemed…
Delta Air Lines during a Thursday virtual meeting named the tech partners it would work with on a customer service-oriented distribution strategy based on IATA’s New Distribution Capability protocols. Accelya, ARC and Google will support Delta as it collaborates with corporate travel intermediaries on new distribution methods. The announcement comes as Delta’s agreement with Sabre…
Southwest Airlines finished last year with roughly 12 percent of U.S. domestic managed corporate travel bookings, based on its analysis of ARC data, up from zero four years earlier. The jump resulted from a combination of market and Southwest-specific developments. Measured by passengers, the dataset encompassed global distribution system bookings through a few dozen of…
With American Airlines’ 2023 passenger revenues 8.8 percent higher and selling expenses 1 percent lower, executives said on Thursday that corporate buyers and travel management companies could expect more of the same: more incentives for business travelers to book directly, more focus on co-branded cards and loyalty, more degradation in support for predominant corporate travel…
Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair, in mid-December announced a deal to directly distribute fares through SAP’s Concur Travel and TripLink. On top of an agreement implemented in May 2023 with Amadeus, and pre-existing participation with Sabre and Travelport, the arrangement positions the carrier to court frugal business travelers for its aggressive growth plans. Already a titan…
With cost savings from NDC “not turning out to be what it was meant to be,” Air France’s chief commercial officer last week lambasted American Airlines‘ distribution plan. “American Airlines is leading the way — they think they’re leading the way — in new distribution strategies,” said Angus Clarke during an Air France-KLM Group investor…
Last week, American Express Global Business Travel’s CEO pointed to Blockskye as offering something “genuinely new.” He wasn’t the first leader in Amex’s orbit to recognize the emerging player. During a Skift event in September, Amex GBT chairman Greg O’Hara referenced, without naming all the names, PwC’s decision to move its North America travel program…
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