Sabre Partners Cheetah, Boosts Airline Solutions Segment

Sabre Corporation SABR is riding on partnerships to augment its growth. The company recently announced that it has collaborated with marketing technology company, Cheetah Digital, to add loyalty management capabilities to its comprehensive offerings.

Cheetah Loyalty solution enables brands to create comprehensive marketing programs that deliver unique customer engagements. Sabre integrated the cloud-based Cheetah Loyalty solution into the Sabre Commercial Platform, which enables the company’s airline clients to virtually manage and market loyalty programs to their consumers.

Sabre's airline clients will have better information of their travellers and more advanced predictors like preferences shared on social media.

Additionally, airlines will have mobile apps for consumer engagement and transactions, real-time engagement analysis and data to identify potentially high-value customers.

Partnerships to Boost Airline Solutions Business

Sabre’s Airline Solutions segment, despite witnessing a 3.1% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2019, is facing several headwinds.  Accidents at Lion and Ethiopian Airlines, suspended operations at Jet Airways and the overall impact of the grounded 737 MAX aircraft have taken a toll on the company. As a result, Sabre now expects a 2-4% decline in Airline Solutions revenues for the full year of 2019.

The company is therefore banking on key partnerships to enhance the segment. It is taking a collaborative approach to deliver next-generation retailing experience through its airline clients.

In May, this year, Sabre announced a long-term agreement with Vietnam Airlines, which adopted the Sabre AirVision In-Flight solution. In the same month, the company also renewed its partnership with Polish carrier LOT.

In its last-reported quarter, the company launched its first set of NDC APIs with United Airlines and next-generation shopping solutions, which are expected to be key growth drivers in the long term.

Moreover, Delta Air Lines joined Sabre’s Beyond NDC program recently, and is working with the company on its newly announced Next Generation Storefront.

Such initiatives helped Sabre become a certified IATA ONE Order Capable for air flight transaction as an order management system and delivery provider, making it the first passenger service system to receive this certification.

Notably, Sabre’s customer centricity and continued efforts to enhance client experience has helped the company witness consistent revenue growth since its initial public offering in 2014. We therefore believe continued collaborations and extended partnerships will help the company revive its profitable Airline Solutions business.

Sabre Corporation Revenue (TTM)

Sabre Corporation Revenue (TTM)

Sabre Corporation revenue-ttm | Sabre Corporation Quote

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Sabre currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader Computer and Technology sector are eGain Corporation EGAN, j2 Global, Inc. JCOM and Cirrus Logic, Inc. CRUS, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term earnings growth for eGain, j2 Global and Cirrus is projected to be 30%, 8% and 15%, respectively.

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