Sabre combines airline and agency-focused businesses, as it readies to end staff furloughs

Sabre Corporation has made a number of strategic moves that it says will help position the company for long-term growth beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the new measures is a realignment of Sabre’s business segments by combining its airline and agency-focused businesses, which president and CEO Sean Menke said will provide a “stronger, more seamless experience” for customers.

“This pandemic has caused major shifts in the travel ecosystem, resulting in the changing needs of our airline, hotel and agency customers,” he said.

“We have taken this opportunity to accelerate the organisational changes we began in 2018 to address the changing travel landscape.

“Sabre’s new organisation is built upon the premise that the retailing, distribution and fulfilment of travel will continue to evolve over the next decade, and each of these elements will become even more interconnected and interdependent.”

In addition to its business realignment, the travel technology giant announced several measures it will implement regarding its workforce.

As part of the new measures, staff furloughs will end on or before 6 July 2020, and Sabre will restore employee compensation back to 100 per cent of base pay, ending voluntary and involuntary pay reductions that took effect in March and April across the company.

Furthermore, Sabre is adopting a flexible remote work program that will enable its global workforce to “work from anywhere” to the extent that work-from-home/remote work programs are allowed under local laws.

The company is also “right-sizing” its global workforce, which includes a reduction of approximately 800 employees across 43 office locations.

This is in addition to the separation of approximately 400 participants in Sabre’s previously announced voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement programs.

Sabre expects to complete its strategic realignment and workforce reduction in the third quarter of 2020.

Further details regarding the company’s new Travel Solutions business and leadership team will be announced publicly in early July, when the new structure goes into effect.

It’s been a tough year for Sabre, with the company swinging to a $326.1 million first-quarter loss and abandoning its $558 million acquisition of Farelogix. The travel tech player also introduced over $330 million in cost-saving actions to minimise the impact of COVID-19.

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