Sabre president and CEO Kurt
Ekert sees the company as a “scrappy challenger.”
During an executive interview at The Phocuswright Conference, Ekert said the company has come a
long way in recent years as it strives to execute its goals of deleveraging its
balance sheet and growth through innovation.
Ekert also said the company had paid down $1 billion in
debt in the past year. He went on to talk about a cultural shift at Sabre as it
invests in research and development and solutions that “matter to customers.”
He agreed with calls from some in the travel management community to “blow up” elements of the current airline
distribution model such as EDIFACT. And despite significant developments with airlines using
the New Distribution Capability standard, Ekert said the evolution to offer and order will take longer than the 2030 deadline set by IATA.
He also discussed artificial
intelligence (AI) and agentic developments and said Sabre developers have already seen
productivity improvements.
"When you look at the agentic AI
landscape—agentic players or large tech platforms emerging as a channel, in the
way OTAs emerged 30 years ago—the idea is that we’re going to play there, and
we’re going to play aggressively. We’re going to do that through our agency
partners, through our airline and hotel partners, and we’re going to do it
directly with those large platforms as well.”
Ekert went on to speak about AI
and the distribution landscape and said he believes the industry will see “broad
disruption across all channels,” with metasearch especially vulnerable.
The conversation also touched on
the challenge of look-to-book ratios and how regulators might struggle to keep
up with the rapid pace of technological change.
Watch the full interview below with PhocusWire’s
Linda Fox.
Competing in Travel's Next Era with Sabre's CEO Kurt Ekert