From 2000: Sabre Holding Corp.'s cost-cutting initiative, from which it hopes to achieve $100 million in annual savings, will "absolutely not" impact agents using its reservations system, a spokeswoman said.
Sabre's director of corporate media relations, Theda Page Whitehead, confirmed that some of the 1,200 job cuts will occur in the Travel Marketing and Distribution Group, which includes the CRS. But, agents will see improvements because there will be additional investments there, she added.
Half of the job eliminations will be done through layoffs -- and "most of the layoffs will be done at once," according to a Sabre filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The rest will be through attrition, which will take place throughout the remainder of the year," Sabre chief executive officer Bill Hannigan told employees Aug. 28 in an internal company Webcast. "Some of it has already taken place."
In an Aug. 29 message to Sabre employees, Hannigan elaborated that part of "the company-wide cost-cutting initiative" would come through "the reduction of contractors across all of our organizations, primarily in the U.S."
Sabre sees its acquisition of GetThere as making it the industry leader in all travel distribution channels, including travel agency, business-to-consumer with Travelocity, business-to-business with Sabre BTS and GetThere, and supplier direct.
Much of the rationale behind Sabre's downsizing is that it wants to reinvest and look for new acquisitions. In Hannigan's Webcast, he told employees that "our software business is more important to us than ever before."
"We're the market leader for airline software. But we won't stay a leader if we don't take actions."