SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 6, 2004–Sabre Holdings
Corporation (NYSE:TSG) today announced a new agreement with Carnival
Corporation & plc (NYSE:CCL) (LSE:CCL) (NYSE:CUK) to expand its cruise
distribution partnership across all of Carnival Corporation’s cruise
line brands in North America and internationally. Through this new
agreement travel products from all Carnival Corporation cruise line
brands will become available through all Sabre Holdings businesses.
The new agreement ensures that all Carnival Corporation cruise
line brands will now become available to all Sabre Holdings business
units, including Sabre Travel Network and Travelocity, with full
access to content, pricing and booking functionality.
“We believe that working with Sabre Holdings to achieve expanded
electronic distribution for all of our brands, as well as improve the
content and functionality of the booking tool, will help us enhance
our revenues and reinforce our leadership position,” said Jack
Anderson, Vice President of Marketing for Carnival Corporation. “We
are very excited about Sabre Holding’s commitment to expand and
improve electronic booking capabilities for our professional travel
agency distribution system. This initiative will also help agents
achieve greater efficiency and productivity via Sabre’s automated
booking tools.”
Carnival Corporation & plc, a global cruise company, is one of the
largest vacation companies in the world. Current cruise brands include
Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line,
Windstar Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn, Cunard Line and Costa
Cruises; P & O Cruises, Ocean Village and Swan Hellenic in the United
Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; and P & O Cruises in Australia. Coupled with
its tour operations, Carnival’s brands attract five million guests
annually.
“This partnership offers opportunities for both Carnival
Corporation and Sabre Holdings to capitalize on the significant growth
anticipated in the cruise market,” said Eric Speck, chief marketing
officer for Sabre Holdings. “It enables all Carnival brands to expand
their reach to travel agents, corporations and travelers. And it
allows us to provide our customers full access to content from the
World’s Leading Cruise Lines alliance, in addition to improved
connectivity and functionality for booking cruises.”
Currently, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Windstar
Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines brands are distributed through the
Sabre system and Travelocity. Sabre Holdings and Carnival Corporation
are working closely to add new cruise brands – Costa Cruises, Cunard
Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises, Ocean Village, Swan Hellenic and AIDA –
to Sabre Holdings’ electronic booking channels, as well as enhance
their booking tools with additional functionality made available
through the Carnival XML API. Implementation will take place in a
phased approach with the first phase beginning immediately in North
America, then followed in international markets.
About Sabre Holdings Corporation
Sabre Holdings, an S&P 500 company, is a world leader in travel
commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and
technology solutions for the travel industry. Sabre Holdings supports
travelers, travel agents, corporations and travel suppliers through
its companies: Travelocity, Sabre Travel Network, and Sabre Airline
Solutions. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex, the company has approximately 6,000 employees in 45
countries. Full year 2003 revenues totaled $2.05 billion. Sabre
Holdings is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol
TSG. More information is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.
Sabre Travel Network, Sabre Airline Solutions and Travelocity 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.
Cautionary Statement
Statements in this release which are not purely historical facts,
including statements about the expected benefits of this agreement or
other statements about anticipations, beliefs, expectations, hopes,
intentions or strategies for the future, may be forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Readers are cautioned not
to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All
forward-looking statements are based upon information available to
Sabre Holdings Corporation on the date this release was issued. Sabre
Holdings Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. Any forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
events or results to differ materially from the events or results
described in the forward-looking statements, including risks or
uncertainties related to Sabre Holdings Corporation’s revenues being
highly dependent on the travel and transportation industries and
structural changes within the travel industry, such as the financial
instability or bankruptcy of many of the air carriers. Sabre Holdings
Corporation may not succeed in addressing these and other risks.
Further information regarding factors that could affect our financial
and other results can be found in the risk factors section of our most
recent filing on Form 10-Q with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Sabre Holdings Corporation, Southlake
Dawn M. Dorman, 682-605-2246
Dawn.Dorman@sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Holdings Corporation