Sabre's average booking fee was $5.80 in 2023, an 8% year-over-year increase, said CEO Kurt Ekert on Thursday during Sabre's Q4 earnings call.
Ekert attributed the increase to "a richer booking mix," which helped drive 14% revenue growth for Sabre's Travel Solutions business in 2023. In total, 2023 revenue was $2.64 billion.
After an analyst asked for more detail, Ekert said the average booking fee is affected by the type of air bookings made globally and growth in non-air bookings (hotels, cruises, car rentals, tours, rail and ground transportation). In 2023, non-air bookings were up 27% compared to the year prior.
Sabre also contends it has grown its share of GDS bookings from 32.6% in fiscal year 2022 to 33.8% in fiscal year 2023, citing its Sabre Market Intelligence analysis product. A recent GDS customer win was Priceline.
"We are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing with our carrier and agency customers and believe we will achieve further GDS market share growth ahead," Ekert said.
He said further growth is expected due to a rebound in corporate bookings and strong trends in GDS market share in 2024.
In the fourth quarter, revenue was up 9% ,to $687 million. Operating income was $37 million, compared to an operating loss of $55 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
For the full year, revenue was up 15% to $2.9 billion. Operating income was $47 million, compared to an operating loss of $261 million in 2022.