Sabre Loses a Chunk of Expedia’s North America Business
Photo Credit: Sabre CEO Sean Menke at Skift Tech Forum June 2018. Sabre is losing most of Expedia's North America business. Skift
Skift Take
It was a coup for Sabre to reach a global distribution deal with Expedia 17 years ago when most online travel agencies partnered with just one such distributor. It's certainly not a positive for Sabre to lose that business now.
Expedia Group's months-long drive to simplify its operations has made a victim out of Sabre, which disclosed that it is losing a significant portion of Expedia's business in North America.
Expedia Group has been using all three major global distribution systems — Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport — for many years for access primarily to airline content. It is a way for Expedia to have some redundancy in the event of a failure of one of these systems, and some of these systems have better access to certain airlines around the world than others.
But Sabre CEO Sean Menke disclosed during the company's third quarter earnings call with investors Tuesday that Expedia Group notified Sabre of Expedia's "intent to shift a significant porti
