#alitalia reservations office

[johnsmithusae-blog]

Hello I am john smith live in United State. I like Travelling and I am a Air Transportation. When I free my work or holiday of office then I like to do travel in flight. My dream is moving in flight. Mostly I use alitalia airlines flight tickets and tarom airlines flight tickets. These both airlines gives me best facility and food provider are so beautiful.

[nomadteachers]

- -  🇳🇱 Nederlands - -

ITALIANO NELLA PUGLIA RURALE

Intensive Italian language & culture course in South Italy

For lovers of Il Bel Paese, with or without knowledge of the Italian language: if you don't speak Italian at all or if you can already speak (a little) Italian*, but want to increase your knowledge of the language and culture in an inspiring way; if you would like to practice Italian not only in the classroom but also in the streets and coffee bars in the heart of Murgia (Puglia region); if you want to immerse yourself completely in the Southern Italian culture, discover the secrets of Mediterranean cuisine and taste excellent Apulian wines; and if you want to discover beautiful nature reserves far away from the mass tourism... then Italiano nella Puglia rurale is definitely for you!

*The lessons will be at the right level for you: after the registration we’ll have a quick assesment to determine your level of Italian. The course might host one or two different levels according to the registrations received. The maximum number of participants is 10 and there is one teacher per level.

Where & When

National Park Alta Murgia (Bari), in the Apulian hills of South Italy, easy to reach from the airport of Bari or Brindisi (Transavia, Ryanair, Alitalia).

In spring, in town > Santeramo in Colle, 27th April - 2nd May 2020   

In summer, in the countryside > Altamura: 22nd - 24th June and 24th - 29th August 2020

In autumn, in town > Santeramo in Colle, 12th - 17th October 2020

What

LESSONS: 

20 academic hours of Italian lessons divided into active lessons in the classroom with Giovanna, practice in town, cooking workshops and listening tasks during the excursions.

> Santeramo: the lessons take place during the mornings in the heart of  Santeramo: in the classroom, but also at the bars, at the bakery, at the market, in nature.

> Altamura: the lessons take place during the mornings in the countryside, a few km away from Altamura. The Colonna family will host our lessons and lunches in their beautiful and cozy house, in their garden in the shade of the trees, in their vegetable garden, and of course in their kitchen.

The keywords of the intensive Italian course are communication in Italian, active participation and fun. Every lesson is planned around an everyday topic (for example, ordering something in a restaurant, asking for information at the tourist office, talking about the weather or hobbies, etc.) and it’s divided into two parts: a “theoretical/preparatory” and a “practical” part. In the theoretical part, we introduce the vocabulary and grammar needed to be able to cope with the situation. Then we leave the classroom to practice in real life with local people while drinking a cup of coffee, cooking and making fresh pasta during the workshop or during the excursions.

WORKSHOPS: 

> Santeramo: fresh pasta making and wild herb recognitions with AIDE, a group of enthusiastic ladies eager to reveal the secret of cucina pugliese.

> Altamura:orto & cucina every day with our host, the Colonna family, literally starting from the roots in the vegetable garden (orto) and then turning the freshly picked ingredients into delicious lunches with your help.

ESCURSIONI: 

the programme includes a large number of walks in nature (between 5 and 10km) and guided tours.  The guides Gianluca and Fabio, with the help of Nomad Teachers, will deliver a short guided tour in simple, clear and slow Italian. The excursions are therefore an excellent listening practice surrounded by art and nature wonders.

> Santeramo: the old city centre; the Alta Murgia National Park; Matera, with its UNESCO protected sassi and spectacular canyon; Oasi gravina di Laterza, a breathtaking canyon and a protected natural area; Natural Park Dune Costiere on the Adriatic Sea.

> Altamura: the old city centre; the Alta Murgia National Park; Matera, with its UNESCO protected sassi and spectacular canyon; Gravina di Puglia and the stunning aqueduct bridge upon another marvelous canyon (a gravina, indeed). 

Price

The cost of the intensive course Italiano nella Puglia rurale is:

> 847 €. This includes:

20h Italian lessons;

coursebook and course materials;

fresh pasta / cooking / herbs recognition workshops; 

lunches every day and pennichelle dopo pranzo (naps after lunch) every day;

excursions (including guide, transport, and support for your conversation in Italian); 

guided tours in the historical centre of Santeramo / Altamura / Matera; 

a wine tasting; 

the first dinner;

transfer from/to Bari airport.

> 1110 € accommodation included (single room).

> 2115 € two people, accommodation included (double room).

Any questions? Feel free to contact us!

Registration

5% early bird discount until January 31st 2020.

- - - 

About us

> Gli insegnanti: Nomad Teachers Giovanna Digregorio (born and raised in Santeramo in Colle), and Peter van Ijperen (grown up in the Netherlands, but now also santermano in heart and soul). Special guest, Angela Petruzzelli.

> Il naturalista: Gianluca Stasolla - nature lover, traveler, and walker. Officially recognized guide since 2013 and a registered AIGAE guide (Italian association of hiking guides); founder of Tripeco, a young start-up based in Puglia, specialised in eco-tourism.

> La guida: Fabio Sampaolo, architect and officially recognized guide. 

- - - 

About Italiano nella Puglia rurale

Have a look at the spring and autumn editions 2019.

Veel nieuwe dingen gezien, geleerd en geproefd: van (lastige) taalconstructies en pastatechnieken, plaatselijke gerechten tot adembenemende landschappen; alsmede een hoop bijzondere en sympathieke mensen ontmoet 

 We hebben in Santeramo echt even onderdeel mogen zijn van het Italiaanse leven; een onvergetelijke belevenis!

Ian en Elise, spring 2019

De taal- en kookreis van Italiano nella Puglia Rurale is een pareltje. Een ware aanrader!! Dit smaakt naar meer... Veelzijdige taallessen, gedifferentieerd naar ieders taalniveau.

Monique, autumn 2019

Fantastische excursies gemaakt, schitterende plaatsen bezocht en prachtige wandelingen gemaakt! Heb er echt van genoten.

Doordat je de lesstof ook buiten de lessen direct in de praktijk bracht, was je ongemerkt heel veel met de Italiaanse taal bezig.  

Mieke, autumn 2019 

Een fantastische week gehad in Puglia met Nomad Teachers Giovanna en Peter, de gidsen Gianluca en Fabio, de andere cursisten en de inwoners van Santeramo. Veel mooie plaatsen bezocht en uiteraard heerlijk gegeten!

Hilde, spring 2019

#learning languages #puglia #italiano #trips #languagetrips #italian #Italy #Italia

[jackjohanblue11]

How can I change my Southwest flight for free?

Southwest Airlines is a major American airline that has offices at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia. It has a network of 5400 flights operates daily at 333 destinations on 64 mainland countries and comprises ten domestic hubs and three international hubs. Southwest is responsible for joint ventures of the Air France-KLM SkyTeam Partnership Airlines, Virgin Australia, Alitalia and Virgin Atlantic. Southwest ranked the world's largest daily passenger airline in 2013 and is the second-largest in the world with revenue and capacity. You can call southwest airlines reservations flights if you need any assistance in the reservation or service relevant to the reservations for your flight.

Contacting Southwest:

The Southwest customer service telephone number is 1-833-320-0001.

Say "Existing reservation" and then use your SkyMiles number as your key. You will be assigned to an agent if you do not have a reservation, after claiming, "I do not have it." You will then get a callback instead of waiting being put on hold.

Alternatively, scroll to the "Contact Us" link on the lower right side of the app screen if you're in the Southwest App. You can send Southwest a short text message about your query or doubt, and they will contact you again with the solution.

With wait times between 42 minutes and two hours, the team's Southwest Platinum and Diamond elites are able to receive a callback. Meanwhile, plenty of customers have been given a 50-minute callback window while dialling through their elite number, even if the SkyMiles aren't entered.

While agents are dedicated to supporting clients travelling in a party of ten or more, the Southwest booking officer is always helpful more than prepared to support individual booking. While calling the daily booking number, 1-800-323-2323, it is also possible to get a call back by choosing the possibility to make a further booking and providing the origin, destination and date of flight the next day. It's also an alternative if you can't find an agent through the UK or US community line.

Southwest Airlines aims to provide its passengers outstanding services across a wide variety of onboard discounts and facilities. The customer service line is available throughout the day, and all Southwest agents are happy to help anytime. For assistance and feedback on flight bookings, you can also visit the southwest airlines official site.

Original Source: https://southwestaerofly.blogspot.com/2020/10/how-can-i-change-my-southwest-flight.html

#SouthwestAirlinesReservationsOfficialSite

[flightoffice]

Find the best Alitalia flight-ticket deals, book your flight and fly with Alitalia Airline at the lowest cost. Book cheap flights with Alitalia Airline, air tickets and flight reservations at Flight Office.

[airlinescustomerservicenumber]

Book Or Update Flight Ticket with Delta Airlines Booking Customer Service Number

Delta Air Lines, Inc. is one of the four establishing individuals from the Sky Team aircraft collision, which was established in 2000 and works in joint endeavors with Air France-KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Alitalia, and Virgin Australia. The carrier considered as one of the real American aircraft with its home office and biggest center point situated at Hartsfield– Jackson Atlanta, Georgia.

Regardless of it being the minimal effort aviation routes and the tremendous development in the carrier business, Delta Airline serves the clients at their dimension of fulfillment. The Delta aircraft offers distinctive seating offices to their clients relying upon their class, which incorporate the First class, Business class, and Economy class. Also, the Delta carrier client administration group begins with a specialist help from the Airport to within airship. For any issue or help any time of time, the clients can essentially call at the Delta Airline Customer Service and look for their assistance with respect to everything without exception. , which incorporate

Flight Details

Ticket Booking

Online reservation

Flight Status

Delta Airline – Flight Details, Ticket Booking, Online Reservation, Flight Status

Delta Airline, in contrast to some other carrier, provides differed run administrations to their travelers to comfort them and furthermore furnish them with the most ideal offices. The administrations incorporate

 Planning Individual Trips with best arrangements and minutes ago offers

Booking flights with the people accommodation

Assistance for Group Booking

Issues identified with ticket abrogations

Check-in offices for Domestic Travel and International Travel

Providing Flight Schedule and Status

Provide One time Flight Notification

Tracking continuous flight

Information with respect to current timetables

Documents required for voyaging

Refund issues

Arrival and takeoff issues

Issues with registration and things strategy

Boarding pass issues

Issues identified with security 

Delta Airline – Customer Support

Delta aircraft client bolster possesses Reservations and Customer Support at various areas everywhere throughout the world to help shifted clients and furthermore give the offices to help the master help with language to maintain a strategic distance from perplexity and issues to the explorers.

The travelers are prescribed to contact the Airlines Toll-Free Customer Service Number at 1-844-550-9333 for any further help or data with respect to any issue or inquiry. The group of specialists and profoundly experts give help and gigantic help administrations to their regard clients 24X7 and resolve the issue in a brisk range of time.

For any additional data, the voyagers are prescribed to contact the Airlines Phone Number 1-844-550-9333 for any master help to determine the issue. Because of the expansion sought after of aircraft, there are numerous travelers who are first-time travelers and they require substantially more consideration and backing to complete their work effectively and rapidly without making any issue to alternate travelers.

Source Url:

https://bit.ly/2J3BkXm

#Delta Airlines Customer Service Number #delta airlines customer service #delta airlines phone number

[batdeltaairlinesblr-blog]

Delta Airlines Reservations — A Simple Way of Flying

shorturl.at/oDMV5 Delta Airlines Reservations works in excess of 1500 flights for each day for which around 70000 individuals are utilized in different limits. Workers of the carrier appreciate numerous offices including free worldwide travel following 30 days of business; medicinal, dental and vision inclusion; paid excursions; extra security; occasions and benefit sharing. Delta Airlines Reservations accomplice carriers incorporate — Air France, AeroMexico, Alitalia, AirEuropa and Aeroflot. The carrier’s workers likewise get local accomplice programs.

Delta Airlines Customer Service Careers

The Delta Airlines industry has step by step proceeded onward, far from the liquidation of four noteworthy transporters, a couple of years back. Notwithstanding, this additionally brought about the emergence of different markdown bearers that have now gone to the cutting edge of the aeronautics business.

The commercial carriers offer astounding work openings. For client administration work force, the turnover rate can be quite high, contingent upon specific variables. These incorporate the working conditions and the carrier. While attempting to distinguish a client administration position in a carrier, more often than not you are required to work inside the aircraft tasks. there are sure positions at the Airport Authority or a different seller inside the airplane terminal. Recorded underneath are the carriers that enlist operators for client administrations

Cheap  Delta Flights Reservations

Delta Air Lines is one of the world’s biggest air transporters. They work flights to urban areas on each mainland on the planet with the exception of Antarctica. They have a broad, across the country organize in the United States, and they have a bigger worldwide reach than some other American transporter. At the point when your movement agenda calls for Delta flights, use Expedia for specials and shabby airfare.

* Delta Air Lines on-time rate of 84% positions in the top 10% on the planet, and is likewise a standout amongst the best among bigger bearers.

* Delta Air Lines flights are deferred 30% of the time, which is lower than other enormous bearers. At the point when there is a deferral, it midpoints around 34 minutes.

* Joining both defer recurrence and length just as on-time execution, Delta Air Lines wins 3.0 stars out of 5.

Modest tickets for Delta Air Lines are routinely, when reservations can be purchased for generally 14% beneath Delta Air Lines’ normal value, which can rise to $125 in investment funds.

Source Link Click Here:-   shorturl.at/oDMV5

#Delta Airlines Reservations #Delta Airlines

[businessweekme]

Emirates Explores Etihad Deal to Forge Biggest Airline

Dubai’s flagship airline Emirates is looking at taking over unprofitable neighbor Etihad, according to four people familiar with the matter, in a move that would create the world’s biggest carrier by passenger traffic.

The talks, which are at a preliminary stage, would see Emirates acquire the main airline business of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad, which would keep its maintenance arm, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the matter is confidential. The negotiations could yet fall through, they said.

Both airlines initially declined to comment, before later denying that any talks were underway. Were a transaction to go ahead the enlarged airline operation would be bigger than that of American Airlines Group Inc., which has a market value of $19.2 billion.

Any deal would require the blessing of the rulers of the richest sheikhdoms in the United Arab Emirates. For Abu Dhabi, which sits on 6 percent of global oil reserves, it would advance a drive to overhaul state-controlled entities as it adapts to lower crude prices. The airlines have traditionally been arch rivals, with their hubs competing to attract the same transfer passengers making long-distance trips between Asia and the West.

Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and President Tim Clark have previously played down speculation that the carriers might combine, Sheikh Ahmed saying in May that there have never been merger talks. Clark said in June that the question was one for shareholders, while adding that he saw nothing happening in the short-to-medium-term.

Timeline of Abu Dhabi consolidation

A combination of the airlines would provide further evidence of the sheikdoms consolidating businesses to boost competitiveness. Abu Dhabi and Dubai companies formed Emirates Global Aluminium, one of the world’s largest producers, in a $15 billion combination in 2013, and the two have studied a merger of their stock exchanges. The Dubai government was also the driving force in compelling Emirates to cooperate with local discount carrier FlyDubai.

Etihad has been shrinking its operations following the failure of a so-called equity alliance strategy that saw it invest in a number of generally ailing foreign operators to help feed more traffic through Abu Dhabi. One of those, Air Berlin Plc, collapsed last year while another, Italy’s Alitalia, filed for bankruptcy protection, causing the pact to largely unravel.

The Middle Eastern company also saw its own business come under pressure as a slide in the price of oil led to a drop in travel in crude-based economies. That contributed to a $1.52 billion loss in 2017, taking the two-year deficit at the airline unit to almost $3.5 billion. Fitch Ratings last month said it expected Etihad to continue losing money through 2022.

Emirates Rebound

Emirates also suffered during the Gulf slump but was quick to recover as the oil price — and local economies — rebounded, with net income jumping by two-thirds to 4.11 billion dirhams ($1.12 billion) in the year ended March 31.

At Etihad, group Chief Executive Officer Tony Douglas, who took over in January, has been abandoning weaker routes and paring back the fleet in order to cut costs and boost revenues and cash flow, though he said in June that the measures so far amount only to first steps.

The strategic rethink has also meant reining in Etihad’s ambitions to dominate global traffic, with the main aim now being to drive Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector and foreign commercial links. Douglas has also been negotiating with Airbus SE and Boeing Co. after concluding that doubling the fleet is no longer viable, calling into question scores of wide-body jet orders.

Bringing the airlines together would not be easy because of the duplication of routes from their Dubai and Abu Dhabi bases. Both have sought to exploit the region’s position at a natural global crossroads, but to wring maximum value from the hub model, flights need to be focused at a single location, making transfers easy and more routes viable.

Emirates, which has built the world’s biggest fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos, supplemented by smaller Boeing 777 wide-bodies, is already far larger than Etihad, yet handing the Abu Dhabi company responsibility for certain markets might jeopardize its own success.

The formation of a merged airline would surpass current industry No. 1 American, based on the most recent annual traffic figures from the International Air Transport Association. It’s not clear how much further Etihad’s operations might actually be reduced.

Emirates is already the world’s biggest airline on international routes and ranks fourth overall, according to IATA, behind the top three U.S. carriers.

The post Emirates Explores Etihad Deal to Forge Biggest Airline appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2PW6ajd via IFTTT

#Aviation #Abu Dhabi #Dubai #Emirates #Etihad #Gulf #merger #UAE

[rollinbrigittenv8]

Czech Airlines Faces Likely Takeover by Rival Carrier

Czech Airlines, known as CSA, debuted service between Prague and Verona earlier this year. Rival carrier Travel Service made a takeover bid. CSA

Skift Take: The likely takeover of Czech national carrier CSA echoes the recent flatlining of Air Berlin, Alitalia, and Monarch. A side note: When airlines become insolvent, their airport slots should be awarded to new entrants or smaller players — not Europe's richest carriers.

— Sean O'Neill

Czech airline Travel Service says it has acquired a majority stake in the national carrier, Czech Airlines, known as CSA.

Travel Service, the Czech Republic’s biggest carrier, says it has reached a deal with the Czech state and Korean Air to buy their CSA stakes.

Travel Service had a 34 percent stake, while Korean Air acquired a 44 percent share from the government in 2013. The government still had almost 20 percent.

The sale of the state’s stake still depends on approval by an anti-monopoly office.

The transaction gives Travel Service a 97.74 percent stake.

Travel Service operates regular flights under the name Smart Wings, as well as charter flights and private flights.

The CEFC China Energy Company has almost a 50 percent stake in the airline.

Copyright (2017) Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This article was from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

[touristguidebuzz]

Czech Airlines Faces Likely Takeover by Rival Carrier

Czech Airlines, known as CSA, debuted service between Prague and Verona earlier this year. Rival carrier Travel Service made a takeover bid. CSA

Skift Take: The likely takeover of Czech national carrier CSA echoes the recent flatlining of Air Berlin, Alitalia, and Monarch. A side note: When airlines become insolvent, their airport slots should be awarded to new entrants or smaller players — not Europe's richest carriers.

— Sean O'Neill

Czech airline Travel Service says it has acquired a majority stake in the national carrier, Czech Airlines, known as CSA.

Travel Service, the Czech Republic’s biggest carrier, says it has reached a deal with the Czech state and Korean Air to buy their CSA stakes.

Travel Service had a 34 percent stake, while Korean Air acquired a 44 percent share from the government in 2013. The government still had almost 20 percent.

The sale of the state’s stake still depends on approval by an anti-monopoly office.

The transaction gives Travel Service a 97.74 percent stake.

Travel Service operates regular flights under the name Smart Wings, as well as charter flights and private flights.

The CEFC China Energy Company has almost a 50 percent stake in the airline.

Copyright (2017) Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This article was from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

[touristguidebuzz]

Sabre Axes 900 Workers to Revamp Some of Its Business Lines

Chief executive Sean Menke is doing a restructuring of the travel technology giant that includes layoffs of middle management and a shake-up of the executive team. Sabre

Skift Take: By cutting the management ranks, Sabre's new CEO Sean Menke addresses a gripe of "management bloat" among workers writing on review sites like Glassdoor. He also wisely cuts costs to fund new investment.

— Sean O'Neill

Sabre, the U.S-headquartered travel technology services company, has axed about 900 jobs — about nine percent of its 10,000-person workforce, and will cease recruiting for some openings.

The cuts at Sabre — which the company says will slash corporate and back-office positions by 12 percent and strip away managerial positions that were slowing the pace of software development — follows a strategic review to address what Sabre says calls a refocusing of spending on its most profitable services.

Given that most of the layoffs were of positions at the vice-president level and above, the company is taking a $25 million charge in severance payments.

But it expects to gain $110 million a year in cost savings, which would be plowed into developing retailing solutions for airlines, a better version of its property management system for hotels, and better security for its IT systems and software solutions.

“It’s a tough decision,” says Sean Menke, the company’s chief executive. The restructuring, he says, is intended to transform Sabre into a leaner, more competitive business. “This is a year of transition,” he adds.

The job cuts come with an executive shake-up as the first major management moves taken by Menke since he took the helm seven months ago.

Menke has recently filled new executive positions to oversee the company’s airline distribution division, its airline IT solutions business, and its hotel enterprise software division.

Menke says he expects to make one more executive hire in the next month and that will complete his executive team.

Menke says the company has completed a strategic review of its various arms. Most dramatically, it has decided to “de-emphasize” the support of some products in its Airline IT services business and to shift investment to a greater focus on building a next-generation passenger services system, a platform that airlines use to handle reservations.

Cooled Growth

At its second-quarter earnings announcement Tuesday, Sabre confirmed how the company’s pace of revenue growth since going public in 2014 has cooled off.

In the second quarter, Sabre saw revenues rise to $900 million, a seven percent increase from the same time last year — and a slower pace than the double-digit growth numbers the company used to report.

Net income fell, with the company reporting a net loss of $6 million for the quarter, compared to a $72 million profit in the period a year earlier. Across the six months through June 2017, operating profits dropped 42 percent compared with the same period the previous year.

Growth was dented by the hiccups at a couple of airline customers, the company claims. Air Berlin and Alitalia have faced financial difficulties, which cost Sabre lost revenue.

But this spring Sabre also lost Southwest as a customer to rival tech provider Amadeus, which the company says will cost it about $50 million a year in lost full-year revenue next year.

A data breach in Sabre’s hotel enterprise platform also hit the company’s bottom line. Company chief financial officer Rick Simonson says an unauthorized user gained access to the system and its customer payment card information, gaining access to a limited subset of hotel credit card reservations.”

The cost of fixing the problem and helping out hotel group customers is “in the mid-single digit millions for the second quarter” and will be in “the mid-single digit millions” again between now and the end of the year. (For more, see “Data Breach at Sabre Hits Four Seasons and Other Hotels.”)

As a side note, Menke in the past month has created and filled a new chief information officer role to manage data security better and prevent data breaches like the one reported in May from happening again.

Menke says another investment priority is to upgrade the speed of Sabre’s tool for shopping for fares which online travel agencies such as Expedia Inc. rely on.

Sources tell Skift that Expedia has complained to Sabre about perceived slowness in Sabre’s systems. Menke says his company will begin migrating to a faster and more flexible system by year-end.

Menke also wants an accelerated rollout of the next generation of the company’s SynXis property management system for hotels. Its most high profile hotel group enterprise client is Wyndham, which it is helping to go from four central reservation systems to a single one, a Sabre SynXis product — a brand-by-brand migration that will last until early 2018.

Menke also says that a new desktop reservation system for travel agents, Sabre Red Workspace, has begun to be rolled out with Australian travel agency Flight Centre being the lead launch partner in the next few months.

Weakness in Asia

Sabre notes that its revenues are dominated by its air distribution business, in which it plays technological middleman to airlines and online and bricks-and-mortar travel agencies. In the past year, it says it has lost three-quarters of a percentage point of global market share to its rival Amadeus. (It also competes with Travelport and TravelSky.)

Sabre says it had a particular weakness in Asia. This weakness has come about despite Sabre having acquired Abacus, an Asia-Pacific-focused global distribution system, two years ago.

What it does not say — but which industry insiders tell Skift — is that Amadeus has had a few years of greater success in selling a passenger service system to low-cost carriers in Asia-Pacific. Amadeus recently has been tipping some of those Sabre SuperSonic customers over to Amadeus’ own passenger services business. This has helped to drive its market share gains at the expense of Sabre.

Speaking with investors on a call, Sabre executives cite weakness in India as a particular driver of the slow performance in Asia.

Some industry insiders speculate, based on perceived hints Sabre executives have made during talks in front of investors, that Sabre will make some move, possibly an acquisition or other investment, to double down on India and become more competitive in that market.

Executives offered no commentary during the call on reports that came up during the Amadeus earnings call earlier this week suggesting that Sabre was offering increased incentives to agencies to steal share.

If 2017 is “a year of transition,” 2018 is shaping up to be more of the same, as executives forecast the revenue and profit picture will be the similar. They predict a “muted” first half of 2018 — due to a slower pace of discussions with airlines about renewals and signing up new customers.

For more context, see Skift’s May interview with Sabre CEO Sean Menke.

[touristguidebuzz]

Sabre’s New CEO Wants to Instill an Accountability Culture

Sabre CEO Sean Menke realizes the company has to improve on its product delivery to airlines. Sabre

Skift Take: In January there was a changing of the guard at Sabre. New CEO Sean Menke thinks his background as a former airline CEO gives him insight into what airlines want from Sabre in new products. But he'll need to up his company's product execution and delivery if he wants to maintain market share, according to employee complaints.

— Sean O'Neill

At first glance, it seems unlikely that Sabre, a company airlines hire to manage reservations, flights, and other functions, would have a project management problem.

The Southlake, Texas-based company saw its revenue rise 13.9 percent to $3.37 billion in 2016. How could a company with revenue growth like that have an uneven record when it comes to delivering products to customers?

Yet Sabre’s new chief executive Sean Menke implicitly acknowledged some possible issues during its fourth quarter and full-year 2016 earnings call Tuesday. He said his company needed to up its game when it comes to execution and project management, though he phrased these ideas in heavily-coded corporate-speak.

Menke said, “The summation of our collective focus on value creation requires that we improve our allocation of resources to more effectively align with our customers’ needs, time-to-market, and greatest return to Sabre. The heart of this is an honest assessment of our infrastructure, technology, and products, and how we will meet these demands.”

Menke underlined his message to the investment community by saying, “We are very focused on accountability. We want you to hold us accountable.”

Some investors weren’t interested. Tuesday’s quarterly earnings report sent the share price of Sabre’s stock down more than 10 percent.

Investors were reacting to a downward revision in Sabre’s forecasted growth. On the call with investment analysts Tuesday, Sabre’s CFO Rick Simonson said the mid-term to long-term expected pace of earnings per share growth is “off the table.” In other words, the juicy and often-forecast-beating returns that investors enjoyed in the two years since Sabre went public have ended.

Executives told investors not to worry. One key justification for earnings not meeting previously forecast levels, they said, is that the company has to accelerate investments in its core technology infrastructure, a process that will be a drag on profits.

Yet investors will be watching to see if the pace of signing new business and repeat business is falling off due to delivery problems.

One eyebrow-raising moment came in November when Copa Airlines decided to postpone its planned migration from HP Enterprise to Sabre’s reservation system.

Similarly, in 2012, Southwest Airlines backed away. In a decision with a slo-mo impact, this May, Southwest’s huge domestic passenger volumes switch to a reservation system run by Amadeus, Sabre’s rival.

On Tuesday’s call, Sabre pointed to a successful onboarding of American Airlines onto its reservation system last autumn. Excluding the Southwest drop-off, Sabre forecasts that, in 2017, the number of passengers boarded on its systems will increase by more than seven percent.

On Tuesday’s call, CEO Menke, formerly a CEO of Frontier Airlines and an executive at Hawaiian Airlines and Air Canada, said the company needed to invest in technology to meet carriers’ expectations.

Menke noted that he has worked at airlines where he was involved in two projects around passenger service systems. “It’s really a heart transplant that’s happening,” he said of the shifts from one system to another.

“This is an area that we need to put more investment into. The world’s not getting less complex. It’s getting more complex. As we listen to our airline customers, they want more, and in doing all that, it’s hard for them to do it in-house….

“When I look at this, I get pretty excited about it because, having sat in that chair, I understand what airline executives want. We need to make sure we’re investing faster in getting the capability to market that enables them to do what they’re looking to do….”

Leadership Shakeup

Sabre has undergone many changes at the top. In the past six months, the company has replaced its CEO, its chief technology officer, and the head of its cash cow unit, Sabre Travel Network, which saw Greg Webb departing after having run it for five years.

Leadership at Abacus, a flight distribution system in Asia that the company acquired in 2015 for $411 million, has also been mostly replaced. Across Sabre, there appears to have been an uptick in departures at the vice-presidential and higher levels in the past year.

Some disruption like this was to be expected. Like its rivals in providing travel technology services, Sabre has been undergoing a wrenching shift from a decades-old use of mainframe computing systems to a so-called open architecture that is considered the best practice today — and has been recognized as such for many years.

To its credit, Sabre has made progress. This summer, the company will debut new desktop software for travel agents that will be reliant on APIs (application programming interfaces, or methods used for retrieving data) that airlines, hotels, and other partners demand.

Menke said, “As a former airline executive, I understand the importance of distribution — all forms of distribution…. I’m also aware that some forms of distribution, including the GDS [global distribution systems, like Sabre] have sometimes fallen short.”

Menke said he planned to intensively invest in the areas that the company’s airline customers most highly prioritize.

Menke said the company would further invest in deploying “lower cost and more flexible technologies” and would “hasten the adoption of cloud and open platforms.”

Employee Gripes

On the call, executives did not address problems in middle management that are rumored to be common. A look through 800 anonymous employee comments about the company at Glassdoor.com, a review site, highlights a recurring theme: Sabre’s processes for delivering products to clients are apparently flawed.

More than a hundred of the company reviews expressed variations on that theme, suggesting there may truly be a problem — despite the usual caveats about reading too much into anonymous comments from possibly disgruntled workers.

Some anonymous commenters suggest that the company overpromises to airlines on what can be delivered technologically and on a tight deadline. But a related and more common refrain is that the company struggles with execution, or in how effectively it creates and delivers products.

A small handful of commenters at Glassdoor and another site, TheLayoff.com, blame managers for doing a poor job of overseeing projects. Gripes range from proper staffing to managing time-to-market processes.

Analysts looking for fire behind this smoke will be eyeing whether clients like Air Berlin, Alitalia, and JetBlue renew, expand, or withdraw from Sabre.

Employee comments suggest that Sabre is disproportionately dependent on Etihad Airways. In 2011, Etihad signed a $1 billion, 10-year technology deal — presumably the most lucrative one-off deal in Sabre’s history. That made Etihad almost a complete Sabre shop, from its reservations system to its passenger services system.

Employees allege that Sabre managers allow other airline customers to be neglected if an Etihad project is more pressing. The core problem is not Etihad, but one of project management, the critics say — arguing that there should be enough resources allocated to handle all of the customers.

Long-Term Optimism

Operational complexity is why Menke is bullish on Sabre. Flight distribution is a business that requires heavy spending on technology. That heavy spending requirement gives specialist technology companies like Sabre an advantage, Menke reckons.

He feels confident that Sabre can provide the technology to help airlines upsell customers, deliver personalized offers, and sell more complex and non-standard products like basic economy seats, which airline executives at United and elsewhere have demanded.

As a former airline executive, he said he also knows that operational shortcomings on the airline side are preventing carriers from optimizing revenue through dynamic pricing of ancillary services, such as assigned seating.

For instance, it’s not enough to sell a seat upgrade. Airlines need to sync up their computing systems to make sure they can fulfill the ancillary sale and have a method to cope if the service somehow doesn’t get delivered to the customer.

Menke believes Sabre can provide the technology to help airlines solve these interlocking problems in a more cost-effective manner than what the airlines might build in-house or buy from competing tech providers.

PRICING PRESSURES

Menke is optimistic, despite many recent public calls by major airlines for Sabre (and its distribution marketplace competitors) to cut their fees.

On that score, something important happened in December: Sabre lost a lawsuit with US Airways.

On the call Tuesday, Menke said the company would appeal the decision, though the company has, essentially, set aside $32 million related to the loss ($15 million of which was awarded damages) as a precaution.

If Sabre loses the appeal, the company’s negotiating position with airlines may be weakened, at least temporarily. “It is certainly going to be a once-in-a-long-lifetime of GDS contract provisions negotiation opportunity,” predicts the chief executive of Farelogix, a small provider of technology services to airlines that has had many conflicts with Sabre.

Despite Lufthansa’s effort to reduce its dependence on companies like Sabre, which led to wide speculation that other airlines might follow its path, little has changed in overall airline distribution practices.

That situation is also up in the air. Last April, Sabre sued Lufthansa in a Texas court over its move to charge a fee for tickets booked through its system, claiming the German carrier is violating its contract. A Skift check with lawyers only turned up cryptic comments that the case is still in process and things are “quiet.” A legal defeat would weaken Sabre’s negotiating hand with airlines.

On the call Tuesday, the Sabre CFO said that the share of ticket sales passing through Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport, and Travelsky grew slightly in 2016 but the share is forecast to drop slightly in 2017. In other words, it’s stable. So Sabre’s battle is for one of share within a narrow set of competitors.

The profit margins on those sales may be under pressure from two fronts. Travel agents want more financial incentives. They say that the growing complexity of airline products and rules means they have to spend more time booking tickets on average.

CFO Simonson said Tuesday that incentives to agents would increase in 2017. “We’ve shown that we’re a sustainable gainer of profitable market share. We’re looking to, as we always have, make sure we play strategically and tactically in gaining share long-term.”

For this year, Sabre is forecasting margins on its air business to increase slightly, even though revenue growth will drop from the 8-to-10 percent revenue growth range in 2016 to the 5-to-7 percent range in 2017.

Adding context to that, Menke said, “We will make prudent, modest tradeoffs in gross margin, with a goal of driving growth and increasing share, total EBITA [earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization], and cash flow in Travel Network [Sabre’s air division].”

Looking at the bigger picture, he added: “During my airline career, I spent a significant amount of time thinking about distribution alternatives. Leveraging this background, we will continue to help airline customers to optimize distribution across direct [such as an airline’s own website] and indirect [such as through Sabre’s network of travel agents] distribution.”

Menke may find that creating more accountability in Sabre’s processes may prove critical to achieving his goals.