Sabre's second largest office in the world is in Montevideo, but a contract dispute with Uruguay's national carrier, Pluna, now finds the airline's flights absent from the global distribution system.
Pluna claims that Sabre removed the airline's content from the GDS Nov. 1 when the two parties couldn't come to terms on a new distribution agreement.
And Sabre argues that the airline chose not to renew their contract and thus the airline's inventory is not available to travel agencies using the Sabre GDS.
A Pluna spokeswoman said the dispute revolves around several commercial issues, including "full content," and Web-only fares.
"Pluna's business model provides consumers with many different choices for value fares including some fares only available at our flypluna.com website," the airline spokeswoman says. "Our distribution agreements need to support our ability to distribute our content inclusive of an economic and commercial model that is competitive with other distribution vendors."
"Sabre's insistence on certain content restrictions as to Pluna's fares," the airline says, would have meant increased ticket prices for passengers.
A Sabre spokeswoman says the company has been negotiating with the airline for several months and has been trying to balance Pluna's marketing and distribution needs with agency and corporate customers' desire for full content.
"We remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached in the future whereby Pluna content can be made available through the Sabre system," the Sabre spokeswoman says.
Pluna's content remains available in the Travelport and Amadeus GDSs, the airline says.
Sabre opened a support center in Montevideo in 2004 and today, says Sabre Travel Network president Greg Webb, the facility, with around 1,000 employees, handles global support for the GDS, as well as "a good portion" of Sabre Airline Solutions and Sabre Hospitality Solutions.
Sabre introduced the facility with cost controls and productivity gains in mind, but has found an added bonus in Uruguay's "highly educated workforce," Webb says.
Pluna has a hub in Montevideo and connects passengers to Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay.