Sabre, Ticket to Oneworld

October 24, 2012

Flag Carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has signed a five-year contract with Sabre Airline Solutions to provide electronic ticketing services across its domestic and international network as it prepares itself for migration to Oneworld Alliance.

PAL will upgrade its Passenger Services System this Saturday (Oct 27) with its booking and ticketing service migrating to Sabre. The Sabre Electronic Ticketing Hosting solution will come online on October 28 as the flag carrier shift its direction towards international growth and kick-start its much vaunted Project Winter

Sabre Airline Solutions leads the market in providing valuable option of interline electronic ticketing, a must for alliance member for connection services, providing substantial cost savings to the airline whilst simultaneously enhancing customer service. 

Interline electronic ticketing used for allied airlines allows passengers to use a single electronic ticket when their itineraries include travel on multiple carriers. Passengers with electronic tickets may be rebooked between participating carriers without having to first obtain a paper ticket. 

The Sabre Airline Solutions Electronic Ticket Hosting solution provides Philippine Airlines with connectivity to all GDS providers -- including the Abacus Global Distribution System (GDS) -- as well as a number of interline airline partners. These partners include American Airlines, United Airlines and several other U.S. carriers. 

PAL will be connected to its future airline partner American Airlines in the United States for domestic connections in the USA. This is not the first time that PAL entered into interline agreements with a US carrier. In 1996 it flew Chicago and New York via interline agreement with American Airlines.

Kevin Hartigan-Go, vice president Information Systems of Philippine Airlines, says the new agreement will provide a range of cost benefits to the airline while increasing relationships with Interline partners.  Its also a huge boost to its Oneworld application.

"The benefits of moving to electronic ticketing are twofold. First, we'll be able to reduce the costs incurred by processing paper tickets, and secondly be able to improve efficiency and customer service levels," said Hartigan-Go. 

"With this implementation, we are well placed to facilitate electronic document exchange with other airlines whom we have Interline relationships with, fulfilling the requirements of some U.S. carriers to support electronic ticketing by 2005." 

Currently, Sabre Airline Solutions provides electronic ticketing solutions to more than 50 carriers in more than 40 countries. These electronic ticketing solutions benefit airlines by streamlining businesses processes, speeding time to market, reducing distribution costs and improving customer service. 

Sabre Airline Solutions-Asia/Pacific (APAC) head office is based in Sydney, Australia, with offices/representatives located in Auckland, Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing and Mumbai.

In 2002, Sabre Airline Solutions signed 65 system contracts with airlines based in the Asia Pacific region, which included the migration of 10 Asia Pacific carriers to the Sabre Passenger Reservations System.

Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. 

More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com