New Passenger Management Solution Offers Ultimate Flexibility That Can Quickly
Adapt to Changing Business Models and Market Demands for Both Hosted And
Non-Hosted Carriers Worldwide
SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Sabre Airline Solutions, the industry leader in airline operations technology, announced today its new generation airline passenger solutions suite comprised of easy- to-use modules to help airlines increase customer loyalty and reduce operational costs.
SabreSonic is the first passenger management solution built on open systems architecture for critical airline operations such as pricing and shopping for airline travel, ticketing and day-of-travel operations. This open systems underpinning provides airlines with unlimited flexibility to implement individual or integrated solutions across the entire scope of passenger solutions, as well as flexibility within the individual modules for more robust functionality. SabreSonic allows airlines to more quickly adapt to evolving or new business models compared to any offering in the market. It also delivers an enhanced customer-centric approach that provides more options for travelers and the assurance of best value. An example of the benefits provided by the new SabreSonic solution is the new open systems ticketing platform that offers the ability for an airline to establish a link to SabreSonic’s universal electronic ticket hub for a cost-effective, efficient connectivity between the carrier and its ticketing partner airlines. This leads to cost-savings and improved customer service for the carrier.
“SabreSonic is the high performing passenger solution that provides carrier specific flexibility,” said Gianni Marostica, president of Airline Passenger Solutions at Sabre Airline Solutions. “In today’s market and projecting into the future, carriers will increasingly require flexibility from their systems solutions. As their business model evolves, airlines need to keep the longer view in mind with systems that can offer maximum scope and scale to accommodate future growth and model changes. Our open systems approach provides this flexibility to airlines across the travel value chain from shopping to fulfillment.”
SabreSonic also meets the right cost equation for airlines in today’s environment. “By making the decision to leverage the open systems approach, we are able to provide a new generation solution at a price point that airlines can afford as they are reining in all costs, Marostica said. “We provide the technology at the right price point, and once in place, the new technology is further leveraged to help airlines reduce their costs — our experience has shown that airlines that have used our passenger management solutions achieve up to 40 percent in cost savings.”
The SabreSonic suite comprises four core modules designed for all carriers regardless of whether they currently operate an in-house or third-party system. Beyond the core offering, airlines that choose Sabre Airline Solutions for their passenger management functionality have access to four additional modules outlined below. While carriers may decide to take advantage of the efficiency and cost savings of the Sabre Airline Solution’s fully integrated solution, they may also choose to obtain only some of the modules on a component basis. This offering is designed for carriers that may be concerned about having to undergo the comprehensive transformation that a switch to a new passenger solutions provider can entail.
The four core components for carriers selecting Sabre Airline Solutions’ hosted passenger solutions suite include:
- SabreSonic Res – offering advanced reservations management capabilities for airlines of all sizes around the world. This capability provides carriers the ability to grow revenue efficiently and manage every channel of distribution. The offering includes the industry’s leading online booking engine, along with shopping, ticketing and codeshare capabilities all managed from a single, easy- to-use graphical user interface (GUI).
- SabreSonic Check-In – enabling both efficient passenger processing and a customer-centric focus both on and off airport. This suite helps airlines streamline operations and enhance the customer travel experience. Capabilities in this suite include check-in, re- accommodation and automated fee collection capabilities, all managed from a single, easy-to-use GUI.
- SabreSonic Inventory – offering advanced inventory management capabilities such as serial, virtual and continuous nesting to enable the industry’s only origin-destination based inventory management
- SabreSonic Command – the only Web-based tool available in the industry that offers flexible options for an airline to easily and quickly configure and manage its passenger solution system from one central location based on the carrier’s profile.
Included in fully Available as Stand
integrated SabreSonic Alone Components
Passenger Solution
SabreSonic Res X X
SabreSonic Check-in X X
SabreSonic Command X
SabreSonic Inventory X X
SabreSonic Shop X X
SabreSonic Ticket X X
SabreSonic Web X X
For those airlines that prefer a gradual solution upgrade to their current system, SabreSonic offers an array of new high-performance stand-alone products and services made possible by the open systems underpinning technology. Sabre Airline Solutions’ replatforming of several major infrastructure elements to this important new technology positions the company to offer industry-leading capabilities also to airlines outside its current family of hosted carriers on a modularized basis.
The newly launched SabreSonic passenger management solution offers additional components for all carriers including the following:
- SabreSonic Shop – an addition to Sabre Airline Solutions’ shopping and pricing capabilities that now include all distribution channels. This gives airlines the flexibility to offer their customers both fare-led and itinerary-led shopping options, as well as the ability to price complex itineraries involving multiple carriers and segments.
- SabreSonic Ticket – allows airlines access to industry-leading, state- of-the-art eTicketing functionality that eliminates the need to build costly systems for electronic ticket distribution and database maintenance. It also offers the ability for the airline to establish a link to SabreSonic’s universal electronic ticket hub that provides cost-effective, efficient connectivity between a carrier and its ticketing partner airlines.
- SabreSonic Inventory – considered a breakthrough in revenue management control, leverages open systems architecture to provide 24×7, real- time transaction processing. The Unix-based system connects directly to a carrier’s computer reservations system, replacing outdated leg- and-segment inventory processing with full origin-destination control with point-of-sale capability.
- SabreSonic Web – A complete, fully hosted online booking tool that enables the airline to most efficiently display and sell — at anytime, from anywhere — the carrier’s products over the Internet as well as those of selected travel partners such as other airlines and car and hotel providers.
Additional components will be added to the modular offering throughout 2004.
Current customers have begun receiving some of the new functionalities via the Sabre Airline Passenger Solutions’ quarterly product release process. These enhancements and system updates will continue throughout 2004 and into 2005.
Two significant product enhancements have been rolled out as part of the Sabre Airline Solutions 1st Quarter 2004 Airline Passenger Solutions product release. These include the Customer Profile System and Agent Sales Report offerings.
The new Customer Profile System is the industry’s first true customer relationship management (CRM) application providing a real-time shared and continuously updated view on all customer activity as passengers progress through their journey — and can greatly enhance an airlines customer-centric approach. The CRM application leverages and enhances the entire SabreSonic portfolio.
One of the cornerstones of Sabre Airline Solutions’ CRM offerings, the Customer Profile System creates a single profile for use across the entire airline’s organization, providing employees the flexibility to access relevant customer information across all touch points, vastly improving interaction with their customers before, during, and subsequent to the journey. This data can also feed planning and analytical systems throughout the organization.
The profile and updated information are available through a Web service, permitting any application within the airline to access and use the profile data. This eliminates the need for multiple profile databases enabling easier integration among systems for consistent information at all customer touch points. The information is integrated with frequent flyer programs for hosted carriers. In addition, the type of information that can be entered is now significantly expanded beyond passenger name record formats and free text.
“Sabre Airline Solutions is investing heavily in new, open systems infrastructure and associated technologies in order to make the new Customer Profile System come to life,” Marostica said. “The industry’s vendors have offered point solutions that represent only parts of a comprehensive CRM solution. We believe we are the first to provide a complete infrastructure for true CRM capability, which is key in airlines’ efforts to become more customer centric. This approach will quickly become an avenue of true differentiation for our customer carriers, giving them a strong competitive advantage in today’s and tomorrow’s marketplace.”
Agent Sales Report is a new functionality within SabreSonic Ticket that provides comprehensive reporting and reconciliation capabilities to enhance revenue integrity at the airline. It provides the ability to track agent ticketing activity, including overages and shortages, cash drawer reconciliation and sales close out. With this tool, agents have the flexibility to report sales directly from the Agent Sales Report, relaying this information to revenue accounting and other third-party applications. The new offering benefits airlines in a number of ways, including:
- Improving data storage and retrieval, storing all ticketed transactions (both paper and electronic) in a relational database for several years,
- Reducing data processing costs,
- Providing enhanced reporting and simplified reconciliation,
- Improving integration with third-party software applications, and
- Increasing flexibility to customize reporting.
Since 2002, over 30 carriers have chosen Sabre Airline Solutions to manage their reservations, departure control and inventory functions. These carriers have benefited from the highest system migration success rate in the industry. More than 90 carriers worldwide utilize the integrated Sabre Passenger Solutions System today.
More information on the new generation SabreSonic solution can be found at http://www.sabresonic.com/ and www.sabreairlinesolutions.com .
About Sabre Airline Solutions
Sabre Airline Solutions, a Sabre Holdings company, is the world’s largest provider of software products, reservation and departure control systems and consulting services to help airlines simplify operations and lower costs. Over 200 airlines worldwide use Sabre Airline Solution’s broad portfolio of software solutions for decision-support tools to increase revenues and improve operations. Over 100 airlines worldwide rely on Sabre Airline Solutions for passenger management solutions, with 15 new carriers added and nine carriers renewals for SabreSonic Res advanced reservations and departure control systems in 2003. In addition, more than 100 clients worldwide have turned to Sabre Airline Solutions consulting group for strategic, commercial and operational consulting. More than 500 contracts worldwide were signed in 2003 within Sabre Airline Solutions.
Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com/ .
Sabre Airline Solutions, the Sabre Airline Solutions logo, SabreSonic, Agent Sales Report and Customer Profile System are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE Sabre Airline Solutions
-0- 01/27/2004
/CONTACT: Kathryn Hayden of Sabre Airline Solutions, +1-682-605-2252, or
kathryn.hayden@sabre-holdings.com /
/Web site: http://www.sabre-holdings.com
http://www.sabreairlinesolutions.com
http://www.sabresonic.com /
(TSG)
CO: Sabre Airline Solutions; Sabre Holdings Corporation
ST: Texas
IN: CPR STW TRA LEI AIR
SU: PDT
AH-AP
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