(23 Mar 2022, 11:42 +07)
As many countries gradually begin to scrap or
reduce travel restrictions and testing requirements put in place
to curb the spread of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, the travel
industry is becoming more and more optimistic that recovery is
finally within reach.
One of the most important components of the travel
industry ecosystem is Sabre. Based in Texas, the company employees
approximately 9,000 people, has offices around the world,
processes over 12 billion shopping requests annually, and is at
the forefront of distribution and travel retail technology.
With so much data being processed by its systems,
Sabre is one of the first to see the latest trends, not only
on a global scale but also within domestic and local markets
around the world.
Kurt Ekert, President of Sabre
To learn more about what is currently happening
within the travel industry, Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com
speaks with
Sabre’s President, Kurt Ekert, who officially
joined the company from CWT on 3 January 2022.
In this interview, filmed over Zoom on 22/23 March
2022, Kurt tells us what forward bookings and trends Sabre
is seeing within the airline and hotel sector, domestically within
different markets as well as on a global scale.
We discuss how the booking process seems to have
changed, whether airlines have used the downtime to revise and
upgrade their distribution strategies, and what role Kurt believes
NDC will play in the future as the technology develops and matures
further.
Kurt tells us about Sabre’s partnership with Google,
the importance of AI and quantum technology, and what excites him
most about what Sabre Labs is currently developing.
We talk about Sabre’s assets, including the
sale of its airline operations business to CAE, and Steven asks why
the company is selling one of the two buildings which currently
make up its Southlake HQ, and what other assets it plans to
offload this year and next.
Kurt also shares Sabre’s policy with regards to
recruitment, hybrid and remote working, and what plans the company
has to expand its employee numbers and presence in China. All that
and much, much more in the video and podcast below.
Travel Industry Interview with
Kurt Ekert, President of Sabre
PODCAST
Editor’s note:
As the above video interview was conducted over the internet, I
would like to apologise that the audio and visual quality are not
up to the same HD/UHD quality that they normally would be. Hopefully it won’t be too
long until we are once again conducting exclusive video interviews
in person, but for now we have to make do with what we have. Thank
you.
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Travel Industry Interview with Kurt Ekert, President of Sabre
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