Articles tagged “sabre”

Southwest has perennially been a thorn in the side of online travel companies that lusted after getting access to its flights and fares. But no one can credibly argue that Southwest's insistence on direct distribution hasn't worked for the airline. Its competitors and peers inside and outside of the airline industry can only be jealous.

There's no guarantee that the European Commission will act on this complaint but it shows that the online travel industry is still very annoyed with Lufthansa's actions.

As more business travelers view their trips as working vacations, travel advisors must draw on both corporate and leisure travel-planning skills. It's no simple challenge, but it's necessary given the strength of the bleisure travel trend.

This year Lufthansa made a series of small moves that, when looked at together, reveal a doubling down on its multi-front strategy to pressure Amadeus, Travelport, and especially Sabre to conform more to its preferred airline distribution practices. Connect the dots, and it looks like a low-grade war.

Travelport has only been on the public market for four years, but hedge fund Elliott Management believes it can engineer a leveraged buyout that will unlock more value from the company. A spin-off of payments unit eNett is a likely early goal.

It has been a long time since Los Angeles International Airport has seen real gate growth. It's nice to see the airport considering some expansion.

In settling this lawsuit, Amadeus doesn't admit to any wrongdoing or violations of antitrust law. Along with Travelport, Amadeus agreed to have its team engage in antitrust compliance training.

It's anyone's guess whether travel distribution giants Amadeus and Sabre might have run afoul of the European Union's rules. But a look at the history of those companies' airline contracts provides clues as to what might be top of mind with investigators.

Over the years, the big global distribution systems have been a major barrier to innovation by airlines and travel startups, in particular. The European Commission now intends to take a serious look at this dynamic.

Sabre allegedly tried to kill smaller rival Farelogix years ago. But now there's peace in the valley. Farelogix's merchandising and direct connection technology will plug a gap in Sabre's offering and could accelerate the travel tech giant's growth.