Southwest Airlines’ content will go live in the Sabre global distribution system on July 26, vice president of Southwest Business David Harvey announced on Wednesday during BTN’s Business Travel Show America event.
The date falls on the early end of Southwest’s prior guidance of the second half of 2021, as Sabre and Southwest have been working to go live as quickly as possible to get ahead of an expected business travel rebound, Sabre vice president of airline sales for North America Erika Moore said in a session with Harvey during the event. “Being able to get it right through summer, so it really starts to ramp up and have everyone be ready for the ramp-up we expect in corporate travel in the third or fourth quarter was critical,” Moore said.
Southwest and Sabre announced their distribution agreement, which includes full GDS participation with ARC ticketing and settlement, at the end of last year. Bookings via Amadeus and Travelport’s Apollo, Worldspan and Galileo GDSs all went…