Sabre signs deal with French travel agency Jancarthier

French travel agency Jancarthier has contracted to use the Sabre® global distribution system (GDS) for travel bookings. Under the terms of the partnership, Jancarthier’s 26 business travel centres and leisure agencies will start converting to Sabre, from Amadeus, in March. Implementation will be completed by mid-May 2002.

This deal follows another recent Sabre conversion with Club Voyages, also a former Amadeus customer. That conversion grew Sabre’s French market share by one percent. Today’s news confirms Sabre as a significant force in the French travel market and demonstrates the GDS’s commitment and ability to adapt to the specific needs of different markets around the world.

“Our reason for selecting Sabre as our travel technology partner is that it is at the forefront of technology and has a great capacity of understanding and anticipating Jancarthier’ business needs,” said Philippe Taïeb, managing director of Jancarthier.

“Thanks to this agreement with Sabre, we now have access to a range of highly efficient tools which help us save time, simplify communication within our organisation and gives us access to all of Sabre’s cutting-edge. We will soon start to benefit from both internal and external added value”.

Jancarthier plans to expand its air booking figures from its current level of 340,000 a year. Sabre will support this growth by providing customised tools to help the agency add value to the booking process. The deal involves establishing a network environment based on an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (VPN-IP) designed to give Jancarthier’s 26 offices unlimited access not only to the Sabre system, but also to the Internet, an Intranet and the IGA back office product via a dedicated, specialised Cegetel line.

Each travel agent will have an individual email address and will be able to receive customers’ booking details online. They will also be able to email confirmation details to travellers, with instructions on how to access their trip information through the Sabre Virtually There electronic itinerary and travel-shopping tool. The Intranet will facilitate internal communication, and the link with the IGA back office product gives agency managers and authorised staff access to turnover and other accounting information in real time, as ticket issuing and invoicing are simultaneous.

Finally, Sabre will give Jancarthier agents access to a wide range of innovative and secure Internet-based products and tools. Sabre’s Agency eServices tools include online booking receipts, online assistance, archived Passenger Name Records (PNRs), self-paced learning modules and electronic vouchers for car hire.

“The recent advances we have made in terms of local content for the French market, together with our industry leadership in technological innovation, enable us to offer ongoing benefits to customers. That is what we are able to offer Jancarthier,” said Floyd Widener, general manager of Sabre for France and Benelux.

About Sabre
Sabre is the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry. Headquartered in Southlake, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the company has approximately 5,500 employees in 45 countries. Sabre reported 2001 revenues of $2.1 billion. Sabre maintains an ownership interest of approximately 70 percent in Travelocity.com (NASDAQ: TVLY), the world’s leading online B2C travel site; and it owns GetThere, the world’s leading provider of Web-based B2B travel reservation systems. Sabre is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TSG). More information on Sabre is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.sabre.com.

Sabre has dedicated European offices in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Sabre personnel, based in these locations, identify the needs of their local markets and develop new and existing tools to help local agencies and associates better serve their clients.

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