Coronavirus Might Hobble Sabre’s Travel Tech Ambitions for Months

Recent stay-at-home orders have gutted the travel industry, which drives a majority of the revenue for technology company Sabre. The Southlake, Texas-based company's software-processing revenue comes from helping travel companies sell and market products, process transactions, and manage operations. The coronavirus pandemic prompted a grisly decline in Sabre's net airline bookings, which declined by 23 percent in February and by 111 percent in March, due to cancellations overtaking new bookings. Sabre has been processing only about 100,000 flight bookings a day compared to the 1.5 million a day it ordinarily handles. Executives said the company has sufficient liquidity, with a cash balance of $1.7 billion, to cope with continued turmoil. "We believe our current liquidity is more than sufficient for a year and a half even in a zero booking, no travel scenario," said president and CEO Sean Menke during an earnings call on Friday. Two-thirds of the company's cost structure is var