Air travel looks better, but more COVID cases hurt progress
Sabre saw some better trends with air travel in recent months, but November’s growing restrictions around COVID-19 haven’t been helpful.
The Southlake company — which provides software to the travel industry, including airlines — said the year-over-year declines in bookings shrunk to 80 percent in October and then stayed at that level the following month, according to documents highlighted during a presentation Tuesday by Chief Financial Officer Doug Barnett. That follows improvements that showed steeper drops of 82 percent in September and 88 percent in August.
The key market that includes the U. S. has been under more pressure last month — staying flat from October. The data runs through Nov. 22.
“In our largest region of North America, bookings … demonstrated a 20 percentage point recovery from July to October,” Barnett said during the event hosted by BofA Securities. “However, we have seen this trend reverse slightly in November, as COVID-19 rates have increased and more restrictions have been put in place. Latin America has shown continued signs of improvement.”
Sabre has been trying to find its way through a historic downturn as folks stay home and avoid travel. In the third quarter, sales dropped by about 72 percent after declining more than 90 percent in the previous period. Barnett said that Asia has been the slowest to recover among its regions around the world.
“We strongly believe there's pent up demand for travel, and the industry will continue to recover from this extraordinary time,” Barnett said.
Investors have showed more confidence in the company. Shares jumped amid news of a vaccine in November, and in the past month the stock has climbed more than 60 percent. The company, which has cut spending with employee reductions and other moves, is set to get about $275 million in non-volume related cost savings this year compared to 2019, according to Barnett.
