London’s Hilton Metropole was given a makeover in red this week as Sabre flew in en masse from Dallas for its STX London event – “The Edge of Innovation”.
In a new format, the technology giant brought together staff, customers, partners and suppliers from across Europe over two days. STX replaces its former TTX, ATX and Hospitality Solutions Customer Forum, and follows its Dallas event in April.
Chief executive and president Sean Menke welcomed 500 delegates on Tuesday and outlined the organisation’s vision.
“We’re in a very vibrant market,” Menke said, “but how do we grow more? The pace of change is fast, but it’s the consumer driving that.”
Global travel transactions reached US$1.6 trillion in 2017, he claimed, with a growth rate of 5 to 6 per cent per year forecast up until 2020.
Part of that growth was due to low-cost carriers, with their market representation totalling 5 per cent in the early 2000s; today, they equate to 30 per cent of seat share. The OTAs, meanwhile, once had a share of 7 per cent, while today they take 30 per cent of global bookings.
“People shop. They want to compare. You have to adapt. Think about the taxis, Kodak, Blockbuster and Netflix. It’s not slowing down, and the ability to have a mobile platform to trial and learn is important,” Menke said.
Throughout the day’s events, the former chief commercial officer at Air Canada drew extensively on his aviation background. At that airline, he said, he wanted to offer customers the chance to not check in luggage and save $15. “I went to the tech guys, and they said that would cost $3 million and take about six months. I told them I didn’t even know if it would work.”
As a result of previous airline frustrations, he said he was well placed to understand the importance of IATA’s NDC (New Distribution Capability), but admitted Sabre was late to the party, adding: “Go back to the fall of 2017, we weren’t committed to NDC. But now, we’re all in. Over the past six months we’ve been focusing on how we lead retailing, distribution and fulfilment.”
NDC Plus
When Menke was quizzed by BBT during a roundtable over whether Sabre would follow Amadeus in launching a similar “brand” like NDC-X, and formally announce tie-ups with agencies as Amadeus has done with Flight Centre, he referred to “NDC Plus” and said announcements on the TMCs it is wokring with would be made soon, with aspects such as loyalty and payments being looked at.
Meanwhile, he said there were more conversations taking place between hotels and airlines than before: “That’s NDC. It’s about knitting them together.” However, he said there was still a way to go before there was a “single platform”.
BBT also questioned Menke on his views of Brexit, and whether the failure to agree open skies agreements could impact on Sabre's revenue. "We're a global organisation. All we do is based on volumes, so I don't see any meaningful impact."