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
