This morning, we issued an earnings press release, which is available on our website at investors.sabre.com. More information on these risks and uncertainties is contained in our earnings release issued this morning and our SEC filings, including our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31st, 2026. References during today's call to Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, normalized Adjusted EBITDA, normalized Adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted technology and adjusted SG&A expenses have been adjusted to exclude certain items. The most directly comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations for non-GAAP measures are available in the earnings release and other documents posted on our website at investors.sabre.com.

Effective this quarter, we have updated the terminology used to describe our revenue to better reflect our evolving brand identity and market positioning. Historically referred to as Distribution and IT Solutions, these revenue streams have been renamed to Marketplace and Airline Technology, respectively. The specific revenue from products, services, and underlying solutions offered within each category remain unchanged. Revenue grew 8% and Normalized Adjusted EBITDA grew 21% year-over-year to $169 million, significantly exceeding our expectations.

We also achieved our highest rate of air distribution bookings growth in more than two years of 6%, and our data shows that this growth materially outpaced the industry. We are encouraged by the continued momentum we are seeing from our growth strategies. Additionally, we believe fuel supply and price dynamics, coupled with softening leisure travel demand, drove a roughly negative 100 basis point impact during the month. In March, the Americas delivered approximately 7% growth, corporate volumes demonstrated steady performance and resilience throughout the first quarter.

What went well
  • First-quarter revenue grew 8% year-on-year to $760 million, exceeding the mid-single-digit guidance, and normalized adjusted EBITDA rose 21% to $169 million with margin expanding 235 basis points to 22.2%; operating income increased 27% to $116 million.
  • Air distribution bookings grew 6%, the highest rate in more than two years, and management said the growth materially outpaced the industry, supported by Marketplace revenue up 9% and Airline Technology revenue up 7% to $142 million.
  • The payments and lodging businesses continued to scale, with Payment Suite gross spend of nearly $6 billion (up more than 40%) and revenue up over 25%, and Lodging Expansion recording its 13th consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth; Hawaiian Airlines was also successfully migrated back onto the platform.
  • Sabre advanced its agentic-AI positioning with the ChatGPT/OpenAI plugin live for Virgin Australia, a Mindtrip/PayPal partnership, and well over 30 potential agentic-API/MCP partners, while its 2025 refinancings left no large debt maturities until spring 2029.
What went wrong
  • The conflict in the Middle East and higher fuel prices created an estimated 7-percentage-point headwind to total air distribution bookings in March, with flights to/from/through the region down roughly 50% and those originating in the region down about 70% (about 11% of Sabre's air bookings touch the region), and those trends continued into April.
  • Free cash flow was negative $155 million, worse than the prior-year first quarter's negative $81 million, driven by $67 million of additional interest payments, $19 million of severance tied to the inflation offset program, and higher CapEx and working-capital timing.
  • Reflecting the geopolitical and fuel headwinds and airline capacity reductions, Sabre lowered its full-year 2026 outlook to low-to-mid-single-digit air distribution bookings and revenue growth, and guided Q2 air bookings to near flat.
  • Softening leisure travel demand added to the March pressure, partially offsetting resilient corporate volumes and Americas strength.

More on Sabre Corp

Reported 2026-05-07 · figures from the Sabre Corp Q1 2026 earnings call.

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