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History
1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s
For more than 40 years, Sabre Travel Network has been developing innovations and transforming the business of travel. From the original SabreŽ system in the 1960s, to SabreŽ InformSM mobile services, an advanced real-time messaging system for travelers, our technology has traveled through time, around the world, and touched all points of the travel industry.
In the spring of 2003, the Travel Marketing & Distribution business unit of Sabre Holdings Corporation transitioned into the Sabre Travel Network – a separate brand within the Sabre Holdings family.
The history of the Sabre system began with a chance meeting …
American Airlines President C.R. Smith and R. Blair Smith, a senior sales representative for IBM, met on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York in 1953. Their conversation about the travel industry sparked the idea of a data processing system that would create a complete airline seat reservation – and make all the data instantly available electronically to any agent, at any place.
Six years later, the airborne exchange of ideas became a reality. American Airlines and IBM jointly announced their plans to develop a Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment – better known as Sabre. The revolutionary system was the first real-time business application of computer technology. It enabled American Airlines to leapfrog from handwritten passenger reservation information in the 1950s to an automated system.
In 1960, the first Sabre reservations system was installed in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. The mainframe system was state-of-the-art technology and processed 84,000 telephone calls per day.
When the network was completed in 1964, it became the largest, private real-time data processing system – second only to the U.S. government’s system. It became an integral part of AMR, saving American Airlines 30 percent on its investments in staff alone.
In 1972, the Sabre system was moved to a new consolidated computer center in Tulsa, Okla. that was designed to house all of American Airlines’ data processing facilities.
The Sabre system was installed in a travel agency for the first time in 1976, triggering the wave of travel automation. By the end of that year, 130 locations had received the system. By 1978, the Sabre system could store 1 million fares.
In 1983, the Sabre system became available to Canadian travel agents.
Bargain FinderSM pricing is introduced in 1984 via the Sabre system. This low-fare search capability automatically advises which class of service is the least expensive for the flights booked – a service unmatched in the industry.
In 1985, the introduction of easySabreŽ allows consumers using personal computers to tap into the Sabre system via computer online services to access airline, hotel and car rental reservations.
The Sabre system was extended to the United Kingdom in 1986, paving the way for widespread international expansion of the system in the next decade.
In 1988, the Sabre system expands to store 36 million fares, which can be combined to create more than one billion fare options.
In 1999, we introduced Best Fare Finder pricing, which allows travel agents to search for flights based on fare, rather than schedule.
In 2000, we introduced SabreŽ eVoyaSM Webtop as the next generation of travel agency technology tools, making it simple for Sabre ConnectedSM agencies to become Internet ready.
