SABRE has big plans for
South Africa.
The technology company
is in discussions with
“some highly interesting”
candidates to take over
from country director,
Richard Addey, who has
been promoted to managing
director for UK, Ireland and
Benelux in London. The
South African market has
been incorporated under the
wing of Antonella Vecchio,
vice president for Western
Europe, South Africa and
EMA strategic sales.
Sabre has identified a lot of
potential for growth in South
Africa with both agency and
airline clients and this has
become a key focal area for
Sabre, says Antonella.
“We will also be growing
our team, by up to 50%, in
South Africa in order to have
dedicated staff available to
service particular key clients
in the market. They will be
supported by our global team
who are able to tailor our
products specifically to their
clients’ individual needs,”
she says.
She adds that Sabre has
shown growth in the global
market in the last five
years and has successfully
entered a number of new
country markets. Its OTA
product offering has proved
particularly popular and
Antonella says Sabre plans
to implement a similar
expansion strategy with
brick and mortar agencies
in South Africa. This will
involve focused engagement
of a strong local team and
tailored offerings to meet
individual client needs.
New tech
Sabre recently launched its
point-of-sale tool – Sabre
Red Workspace – in South
Africa. The system has been
developed based on the
technology company’s OTA
product, Bargain Finder Max.
It is an API-based platform
that pulls information from a
single pipe.
Antonella says the
advantage of this is that
NDC and traditional content
will eventually show in a
single display for agents.
Sabre plans to speed up
its NDC-enabled solutions
through the recent purchase
of airline technology provider,
Farelogix.
The GDS plans to
implement and build on
Farelogix’s GDS- and PSSagnostic capabilities as
part of its own technology
platform to offer airlines
new NDC solutions that will
benefit their customers.
Currently, Farelogix’s
technology is used by a
number of international
airlines to create, control and
optimise differentiated offers
across sales channels.
Sabre – new blood, new strategy
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