Sabre's Q3 earnings call added a few nuggets of knowledge to the financial release, with its CEO and CFO bullish about how well its Travel Network unit (the GDS) is doing compared with its competitors, despite being "not satisfied" with its growth this year.
CEO Tom Klein told analysts:
"Since the start of last year we far outpaced our competitors through the addition of new agencies having added 65 new customers globally over that period and more new agencies than both of our competitors combined."
He added that during this time Sabre Travel Network has not lost any significant customers.
The execs were very pleased with how the business is doing in Europe, but also named Eastern Europe and Africa as regions where it could increase share "just by putting some focus, relatively modest investment in sales and service, people on the ground."
But headwinds - continued woes in Venezuela and the American-United merger - mean that its overall growth this year will be at the lower end of expectations, prompting CFO Rick Simonson to admit "we are not satisfied with where we are in terms of booking and revenue growth in Travel Network this year."
No such growing pains at its solutions business - made up of its established airline and relatively new hospitality unit - where the guidance has increased. Immediate benefits are seen from the 137 million passengers who boarded by airlines using its SabreSonic system - an 8% hike on the same period last year.
This growth has come from existing clients and there will be an even bigger net uplift when American Airlines and Air Berlin passengers will be added to the 2016 numbers.
The hospitality solutions team has had its best-ever sales year, and with the launch last week of its SynXis Enterprise Platform, Sabre hopes to capitalise on "a technology refresh cycle [taking place] over the next five to seven years."
Elsewhere, TripCase is described as "an important differentiator" for Sabre. It is on target to manage nearly 30 million business and leisure trips this year, a triple-digit hike on last year's 13 million journeys.
Sabre said that three big multi-nationals have signed up to TripCase Corporate. Uber in now integrated into TripCase and last week Sabre announced that it was integrating some TripCase functions with the Samsung Gear S smartwatch.
It is clearly another one for the future. Said Klein:
"TripCase helps us gain important insights into traveller behaviour and have unique opportunities to facilitate interaction between agents, suppliers and travellers."
The market is aware that Sabre is seeking "strategic alternatives" for lastminute.com. It mentioned in passing that "good progress" has been made - with the corporate caveat that there is no guarantee a sale will be successful.
Nonetheless, Sabre has now taken lastminute.com results - as in losses - out of its future guidance for Travelocity.
Last August Sabre announced a strategic marketing arrangement (SMA) with Expedia, essentially turning Travelocity North America into a marketing brand.
The SMA is working, at least on a financial level - Travelocity in the quarter was EBITDA-positive.