Sabre Hospitality has announced a multi-year renewal of its strategic partnership with Preferred Hotels & Resorts. It will now include SynXis Retailing and Gift Card & Vouchers. The partnership aims to help create additional revenue streams and attract new guests to Preferred’s member hotels. Preferred Hotels & Resorts is the  largest independent hotel brand representing more than 600 hotels, resorts, residences, and independent hotel groups in 80 countries. The renewed agreement includes SynXis Booking Engine, GDS Distribution, Call Center Services, Digital Marketing, and SynXis Voice Agent solutions. This partnership expansion ensures that Preferred Hotels & Resorts continues to have access to the full suite of Sabre’s hospitality solutions. It aims to support the goal of increasing adoption of its I Prefer Hotel Rewards program. “Preferred Hotels & Resorts is not only a marquee customer but a true strategic partner for SabreHospitality, representing some of the most distinguished hotels in the world,” said Frank Trampert,SVP, Global Managing Director Commercial at Sabre Hospitality. Michelle Woodley, President of Preferred Hotels & Resorts added: “The additional value of Sabre’s Gift Card & Vouchers combined with SynXis Retailing technologykeeps us ahead of the game in the ever-changing hospitality technology space

Sabre Hospitality has signed a new partnership with Loco Partners in Japan. Through the agreement, Loco Partners will focus on connecting hotels in Japan to the global travel marketplace through Sabre Hospitality’s GDS. This solution connects hoteliers to the main Global Distribution Systems, including Sabre’s own. This strategic collaboration will enable Sabre to expand its presence in Japan’s hospitality market, while increasing global visibility for Japanese hotels. Meanwhile, travel agents worldwide will gain access to content and offers from hotels and traditional Ryokan inn accommodations across Japan. Until now, many hotels and ryokan accommodations in Japan have not been listed on GDSs, making it challenging for travel agencies globally to book these properties. Loco Partners is a bridge for global travel agencies for these hotels and ryokan accommodations. “Japan is a key growth market for us, and this agreement is a step forward in our strategy to enable technological advancement for Japanese hoteliers,” said Frank Trampert, SVP, Global Managing Director of Community Sales, Sabre Hospitality. GDS distribution is part of Sabre Hospitality’s Distribution Studio, which features a number of solutions to configure distribution, helping hoteliers to increase hotel revenue. “We’re thrilled to partner with Sabre Hospitality,” said Koji Washino, CEO of Loco Partners. “This partnership not only supports our mission to showcase the best of Japanese hospitality, but also strengthens our ability to connect with a broader audience of international travellers.”

Thailand’s Nok Air is adding its fare content on Sabre’s GDS for the first time By joining Sabre’s travel marketplace, Nok Air will be able to boost its visibility among Sabre connected travel agencies and corporate buyers, driving bookings and revenue growth. The addition of Nok Air’s content adds to Sabre’s range of low-cost carrier options in Asia. “We’re thrilled to bring Nok Air’s extensive route network and service offerings to a wider audience through Sabre,” said Wutthiphum Jurangkool, Chief Executive Officer of Nok Air.  “By making our content available via Sabre’s GDS, we’re broadening our global and market segment reach” Nok Air was established 20 years ago and offers a network of flights across Thailand and the ASEAN region. Nok Air offers connecting flights through codeshare partnerships and fly-n-ferry services, opening up access to Thai islands not connected via air. It has a fleet of 14 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Sabre’s content platform enables travel agencies to compare, shop, book, and service both traditional EDIFACT offers and New Distribution Capability (NDC) content. “By adding Nok Air to our portfolio of budget carrier content, we’re enabling the airline to connect with new audiences through our global travel marketplace,” says Brett Thorstad, VP, Agency Sales and Airline Distribution, Asia Pacific, Sabre

Sabre Corporation has signed a new agreement with flag carrier Garuda Indonesia. The airline will use fare management solutions from Sabre to enhance its pricing management and streamline operations “We’re thrilled to welcome Garuda Indonesia to the growing list of airlines,” said Rakesh Narayanan, Vice President, Regional General Manager, Asia Pacific, Travel Solutions Airline Sales. “Sabre’s Fares Manager, Contract Manager, and Fares Optimizer will play a pivotal role in helping Garuda Indonesia navigate market complexities and achieve its revenue goals.” Combined, Sabre Fares Manager, Contract Manager, and Fares Optimizer are designed to tackle industry challenges such as reducing revenue leakage by automating fare management processes. The solution also Implements optimal pricing strategies through the use of advanced analytics and real-time insights. “We are confident that Sabre’s innovative fare management solutions will provide us with the tools we need to drive revenue growth,” said Muhamad Yusuf, Product Development Group Head, Garuda Indonesia. Garuda Indonesia flies an extensive domestic, regional, and international schedule, including to Europe, the Middle East, and across Asia Pacific. Garuda Indonesia joins over 30 airlines using Sabre’s fare management solutions.

New Saudi airline Riyadh Air will adopt SabreMosaic to kick off its retailing when it launches its inaugural flight next year. It enables the airline to operate on offer- and order-based technology across the entire retail spectrum from its first day of operations in 2025. Powered by Sabre Travel AITM and utilizing Google's Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) toolkit, SabreMosaic uses smart customer segmentation and intelligent. Riyadh Air will deploy SabreMosaic Air Price IQ, Ancillary IQ, Bundle IQ, and Upgrade IQ to manage dynamic offers. Riyadh Air will also use SabreMosaic Continuous Revenue Optimizer for continuous pricing, making it the first airline in the world to operate without traditional fare filing and booking classes in the direct channel. "We are excited to partner with Riyadh Air as they become the first airline to operate entirely on offer- and order-based technology," said Darren Rickey, SVP, Global Airline Sales and Account Management, Sabre Travel Solutions. Sabre introduced the SabreMosaic offer and order retailing platform for airlines earlier this year. 

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  Four years into their strategic partnership, Google and Sabre held a special virtual event to share latest developments born from their collaboration. Featuring high-profile experts from both companies, the webinar showcased new advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) for the travel industry as well as highlighting future trends that will further personalize the end-to-end travel experience.   Key Speakers:

• Carrie Tharp, VP of Global Solutions & Industries, Google Cloud
• Garry Wiseman, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Sabre
• Sundar Narasimham, SVP, Labs Technology & Platform, Sabre
• Amy Read, VP, Innovation, Sabre Hospitality

  Why the travel industry is investing in AI   Kicking off the session, Sundar Narasimham outlined the importance of AI-powered technological transformation, pointing out that the value of generative AI in terms of increased global revenue for businesses could be over $28bn, while 74% of travel organizations are currently re-working their strategy to incorporate AI.   “The competitive nature of this between leaders who adopt AI technology and people that don’t is growing,” added Sundar. “Boards across the corporate landscape are recognizing this and investing in AI.”   Sundar explained that travelers want the kind of seamless, personalized experiences that have become commonplace in other industries, such as retail. AI is powering the technology needed to meet those demands, but its algorithms need extensive, robust data sets to be able to do so.   This one of the reasons Sabre entered into a strategic partnership with Google in 2020.   “The key commitment that both companies recognized was that we could come together and use the data and travel-related domain knowledge that Sabre had with the platforms and capabilities that Google Cloud was bringing to bear to the marketplace and, together, innovate in order to provide AI-based, intelligent, personalized experiences to the end traveler,” said Sundar.   Revving our engines   Sabre’s strategic partnership with Google has been instrumental in accelerating digital transformation in the travel industry. The collaboration has birthed Sabre Travel AI, which is powering solutions including Sabre’s new Offer and Order platform for airlines, SabreMosaic.   Sabre is also using AI, and Gen AI in particular to improve customer care and boost innovation cycles with faster coding.   Since announcing a strategic partnership with Google in 2020, Sabre has invested in a move to the Google Cloud Platform, and continues to invest in AI-powered innovation. So far, Sabre has migrated over 400,000 CPUs to the cloud, 50 petabytes of data, and 99% of its compute capacity.   Sabre is now moving at an accelerated pace when it comes to creating and going to market with new AI-powered solutions. “Not only are we producing products for the external marketplace – for users that we know can enjoy these products – but increasingly for internal use cases, to improve our own developer productivity as a software company,” said Sundar.   Garry Wiseman expanded on this, adding: “At Sabre, we look at the internal and external benefits (of AI), and I also know that our agencies and travel suppliers tend to look at it the same where, internally, there are productivity gains and cost savings, and then externally, when you think about it from a marketing, sales, and service perspective, there are potential improvements for travelers.   “One of the examples here is where we use Google’s Vertex AI platform for our Sabre Mosaic retail intelligence products that help airlines show the most optimal pricing to travelers, and also effectively help them merchandise their products to help grow the basket size.”   Carrie Tharp described the collaboration with Sabre as one of Google’s “key innovation partnerships,” adding that it is accelerating Sabre’s ability to bring new products and services to market. “That started with transforming Sabre’s underlying infrastructure and getting it into the cloud, which then revs Sabre’s engine to focus resources and expertise on new use cases and bringing those to market very quickly,” she said.   Meanwhile, Garry Wiseman said Google felt like an extension of Sabre because of the way the two companies were working in “true partnership” with each other.   New product prototypes   The companies also previewed examples of new use cases, including AI-powered prototypes set to launch in 2024, or already in the testing phase with customers. These include:

• SynXis Booking Engine Concierge.AI: A Generative AI conversational tool for hoteliers that personalizes guest experiences with tailored recommendations and itineraries;
• Travel Email IQ: An automation tool that reads and understands customer emails, connects to Sabre travel content, and crafts personalized, ready-to-book recommendations within seconds;
• Schedule Exchange: A predictive AI tool that assesses the likelihood of flight cancellations between booking and day-of-travel, enabling travel agents to offer the best flight options for travelers.

  Google is providing Sabre with fast and early access to its technology roadmap, ensuring that Sabre is at the forefront of consuming Google technology to create and enhance platforms and products for customers, with Sundar Narashimham describing AI as having the potential to enhance all steps of the travel experience, “from inspiration to memories”. He said: “If you look at the lifecycle of moments in which travelers find themselves, AI can serve as an enhancement for almost all of those experiences.”   Coming full circle with personalization   Google and Sabre panelists discussed how AI and GenAI solutions are enabling greater personalization to meet traveler expectations, with Garry Wiseman noting that AI is “removing friction in getting travel planned, booked, and executed”.   Carrie Tharp said: “This is an industry that’s gone from having an individual travel agent – a person you could call to guide you through the whole travel journey – to the advent of platforms where you could book it all yourself, to now almost coming full circle where we are using technology to bring back a lot of that service level and the personalization that the consumer craves.”   Both Sundar Narashimham and Carrie Tharp pinpointed the powerful ability of AI to combine “numeric or data intelligence with language intelligence” to create levels of personalization the industry hasn’t yet seen. Sundar also said that, with increasingly fragmented content across the travel industry, AI is helping to solve those complexities so travelers are seamlessly presented with the best options across multiple content types and sources.   Carrie Tharp said AI can and will be “able to synthesize large amounts of information that the travel industry has, combined with all of the things a consumer is thinking about, breaking down the friction in a journey and not only leading to higher revenue but also potentially more trips and more things purchased during a traveler’s journey.”   Looking to the future of AI in travel   Panelists predicted how AI is set to radically reshape the travel industry.   Describing the building-block nature of Sabre’s new solutions, Garry Wiseman said a modular approach with more of an iterative, component-based deployment will be the way forward for Sabre as it continues to evolve travel technology, and make it more accessible, for customers.   “One of the great examples here is our Air Price IQ product, which is part of Sabre Mosaic,” he said. “As I look at how we developed and deployed that with customers, it’s very different to  the traditional deployment we’ve had with other products. We’ve been able to put this on their websites within a matter of weeks… and we started to see uplift as we evolved and iterated on the models, up to about 3% in incremental airfare revenue.”   He added that using AI “will be table stakes for anyone in the industry… It will be something that is expected by the traveler.” Speaking about using Gen AI for new hospitality solutions, Amy Read said: “We’re working with our customers now and building foundations to understand their requirements and what we can do to solve for them, so this is a huge investment area for us, and it’s one of our areas of primary focus. I’m 100% behind that Gen AI is very much our future.”   Carrie Tharp said that AI is powering an “end-to-end reshape,” adding: “In the next 10 years, the look of travel booking will be nothing like we’ve all experienced in the previous 20 years, and you will see AI and predictive AI applied to every step of the travel journey.”   As AI continues to drive the future of travel, Google and Sabre remain at the forefront – together, delivering personalized, tech-driven solutions that redefine how we travel.

Sabre Corporation has renewed its longstanding network planning and scheduling agreement with Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines will continue to use Schedule Manager and Slot Manager from Sabre's Network Planning & Optimization suite of technology. Sabre Slot Manager helps efficiently manage airport slots worldwide. This enables airlines to identify and secure airport slots required for future schedules without the risk of losing them. Schedule Manager helps airlines plan schedules across their networks. The carrier also distributes its New Distribution Capability (NDC) content through Sabre's global marketplace. "Without the right airport slots and schedules, it's impossible to fly routes that are both profitable for airlines and which meet evolving passenger demand," said Rakesh Narayanan, Regional General Manager, Asia Pacific, Travel Solutions Airline Sales. "We're pleased to renew this valued collaboration with Singapore Airlines."

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Sabre Corporation recently announced a new strategic tech partnership with prominent South Korea online travel platform InterparkTriple. The agreement will bring together InterparkTriple's online platform and Sabre's Travel AI tech. Sabre developed the Travel AI tool with Google. The collaboration aims to leverage Sabre's Travel AI microservices on InterparkTriple's platform, providing users with more personalised options powered by artificial intelligence (AI). As part of the partnership, Sabre and InterparkTriple will test new ideas. "We are playing a pivotal role in South Korea through enhanced travel content and AI technology" said Jun Shin, Head of Travel Business, InterparkTriple. "We're incredibly excited about the possibilities this new partnership with Sabre brings." InterparkTriple is owned by Yanolja, and was formed through a merger of travel and ticketing company Interpark and AI-driven travel planning platform Triple. InterparkTriple has already established a new corporation for its AI travel business, called Encode AI. It has ambitious goals of helping to attract 50 million visitors to South Korea annually by 2028. The new platform supports hyper-personalised Korean travel content and itineraries through AI, including the development of travel products like Hallyu experiences. 

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Bangkok Airways has renewed its network planning and optimisation solutions with Sabre Corporation. This extended deal marks the third renewal between the two companies. Bangkok Airways will continue to deploy the suite of Sabre's network planning and optimization solutions to boost efficiency and passenger choice. The carrier uses Sabre's Cloud-enabled Schedule Manager, Slot Manager and Codeshare Manager. "We've been working together with Sabre for almost a decade. Sabre's tech has become imperative to both our day-to-day operational efficiency and longer-term growth," said  Chulin Kocharoen, VP - Network and Product Development, Bangkok Airways. "This renewed agreement will enable us to continue to benefit from Sabre's advanced, intuitive solutions to optimize our flight schedules." Bangkok Airways flies from Thailand to more than 20 regional destinations, including Singapore, the Maldives, Cambodia, China, and Laos. The carrier recently announced a new interline agreements with Air India and a codeshare deal with Singapore Airlines. It brings its codeshare agreements managed through Sabre's Codeshare Manager to 28. "We're delighted that, through this deal, Bangkok Airways has signalled continued confidence in our technology," said Rakesh Narayanan, VP, Regional General Manager, Asia Pacific, 

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Sabre is hitting the road in India to help boost travel agency innovation and growth. Sabre is rolling out its Sabre Space roadshow campaign in India. The travel tech roadshow will bring Sabre experts and executives together with India travel agencies in Delhi and Mumbai. Sabre Space offers an in-person platform for agents to explore the latest technology trends and gain important insights. The agenda includes the latest market and global travel trends, as well as how travel agencies can tap New Distribution Capability (NDC) offers. Sabre will also be talking about how to streamline travel operations and enhance travel offers through multi-source content It will also update India travel agencies on Sabre's Artificial Intelligence-driven technology. “We can't wait to talk to our agency partners in India about the trends we are seeing in the marketplace, and hear about what really matters to them,” said Brett Thorstad, VP of Sabre Travel Solutions, Agency Sales & Airline Distribution, Asia Pacific. Events also include how to enhance revenue through Sabre's Content Services for Lodging, as well as how Sabre's newly launched Global Shopping capability works. The Sabre Space events will take place in India on May 8 in Delhi, and May 10 in Mumbai. Events have already taken place in Sydney, Singapore, Manila, and Taipei. 

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Sabre Corporation has inked an enhanced distribution deal to supply Air India’s domestic flight content to Indian travel agency partners. They signed an expanded agreement that builds upon their partnership announced in April 2023. Under the augmented agreement, travel agencies in India will have access to Air India’s domestic content through the Sabre Global Distribution System (GDS) from 1 January 2024. It provides Indian travel buyers with an expanded portfolio of fares and seats. Air India also has the added ability to distribute New Distribution Capability (NDC) content globally through Sabre’s travel marketplace in the future. Earlier this year, the two companies signed a new global distribution deal through Sabre’s travel marketplace. Itt gave travel agencies outside of India access to the airline’s domestic and international flight options, while travel agency partners within India could shop for international fares. That agreement has now been expanded to include all domestic fares and content for points of sale within India. “Our collaboration with Sabre has already proven successful, said Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial & Transformation Officer, Air India.. “We are further enabling travellers to explore the diverse destinations that Air India’s domestic network covers.” With the domestic content in Sabre’s GDS, it means Sabre-connected travel agents in India will be able to easily access and book Air India flights alongside other global carriers.