Corporate travel bookings faltered in the fourth quarter of 2022, but they were picking up in the first weeks of 2023, according to Sabre, a software and technology company that serves the global travel industry.
Bookings through Sabre’s global distribution system in Q4 were down nearly 60% year-over-year, the company said during its earnings call for the quarter. That’s equivalent to roughly 65% revenue recovery from 2019 due to higher revenue per booking, according to a February 15 Business Travel News article.
However, fourth-quarter bookings came in far short of original projections. In Q3, Sabre forecast air booking recovery for the fourth quarter would be in the low 60% range. Factors such as operational constraints for airlines and airports, airline capacity limits and regional travel restrictions contributed to lower bookings in November and December, stalling the recovery in the quarter.
Sabre executives expect it to be a temporary lull, and they pointed out that both corporate travel and Asia/Pacific travel were already improving this year.
By mid-February, year-to-date recovery in Sabre’s travel management company business was about 9 percentage points above December levels and had continued to strengthen week by week. Sabre is also seeing a return of group bookings coming out of Asia that are similar to pre-Covid travel patterns.
GDS bookings recovery through February 9 had reached 62% of 2019 levels for that period, and company executives foresee “a steady incremental recovery from where we are.”
For more information, visit sabre.com.
