Sabre’s Ekert on economy, airline distribution trends

Despite high inflation and the slowing economy, Sabre president Kurt Ekert says he is optimistic about travel’s continued recovery heading into 2023. Airlines are currently under capacity, and he expects capacity to climb 10 to 15% in the first quarter of the new year.

“If you look at the macro picture, demand is very robust,” Ekert says, noting that he foresees a rise in demand for both corporate and leisure travel.

The 26-year travel industry veteran shared his outlook during an Executive Interview at The Phocuswright Conference in November in Phoenix.

Ekert stepped down as CEO and president of CWT in May 2021 and in January 2022 he became president of Sabre . He has also held executive roles at Travelport, GTA, Orbitz and Continental Airlines.

At Sabre, Ekert focuses on running the business day-to-day and improving product execution while CEO Sean Menke focuses on the investor community and macro-strategy.

Along with his respect for Sabre’s position in the travel ecosystem, Ekert says he joined the company because he sees opportunities to do more to enhance Sabre’s airline distribution capabilities.

I’m a big believer in just being a two-sided marketplace and making sure that you solve things not unilaterally for one party but for all the key stakeholders involved.

Kurt Ekert - Sabre

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Specifically, he expects NDC adoption to grow in the coming years because carriers want to sell as dynamically in B2B as they do in B2C, which calls for “becoming better retailers and being able to better differentiate their product offerings.”

“The good news is that the technology is finally catching up with the aspirations of the last 15 or 20 years, and I think you will see more symbiotic relationship between suppliers and the likes of Sabre as we go forward,” he says.

In a “ coalition of the willing ,” the travel management company or online travel agency, a technology intermediary like Sabre, and the airline all need to align their interests.

“I think it’s about finding the happy medium in terms of technology and a commercial solution that works for everybody,” he says. “I’m a big believer in just being a two-sided marketplace and making sure that you solve things not unilaterally for one party but for all the key stakeholders involved.”

The commercial model is a “pro-competitive model” that “generally works,” according to Ekert. The cost of distributing through Sabre tends to be 1- or 2% of the cost of distribution. By most competitive standards of other industries, it’s “a very effective cost of distribution.”

Sabre generally provides a higher-yield traveler to its airline and hotel customers than they’re able to get through B2C channels, according to Ekert.

Ekert supports the move to the cloud from mainframe or legacy hardware, because the cloud reduces the cost to compute and “provides a much more nimble platform in which folks like us can innovate at a very different pace.” Sabre’s hospitality solutions business is fully on the cloud.

Watch PhocusWire senior reporter Linda Fox’s full interview with Ekert below.