History

1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s

For more than 40 years, our company has helped transform the airline industry through technological advancement.

The first passenger reservations system offered by Sabre, installed in 1960, marked a dramatic technological leap forward for the airline industry, automating one of its key business areas. In the following years, Sabre Airline Solutions pioneered technological advances for the industry in areas such as revenue management, pricing, flight scheduling, cargo, flight operations and crew scheduling. And not only did we help invent electronic commerce for the travel industry, the company holds claim to progressive solutions that defined — and continue to revolutionize — the travel and transportation marketplace.

Today, Sabre Airline Solutions continues to build on its history, offering a comprehensive portfolio of technologically advanced decision-support tools that have helped many of the world’s leading airlines enhance their profitability.

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 reservations information in the 1950s to an automated system.

1960s

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.

1970s

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 1978, the Sabre system could store 1 million fares.

1980s

In 1986, Sabre Airline Solutions released the industry’s first revenue management system, helping maximize airline income by optimizing the fare at which each seat is sold. Sabre Airline Solutions also invented the virtual and continuous nesting concepts for revenue management.

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, Sabre Airline Solutions begins providing software, consulting and systems management services to other airlines in areas such as revenue accounting, yield management and crew scheduling

In 1988, the Sabre system expands to store 36 million fares, which can be combined to create more than one billion fare options.

1990s

Sabre introduces the Sabre® AirFlite™ flight scheduling system in 1992.

In 1994 Sabre and SNCF (French National Railroad) install the RESARAIL™ rail reservations and distribution system for the TGV network. The system is subsequently extended to the English Channel Tunnel.

In 1998, Sabre Airline Solutions completed the largest system migration in the airline industry's history when 200 US Airways systems were shut down and shifted to Sabre systems.

In 1998 Sabre forms a joint venture with ABACUS International to establish the SabreSonic™ passenger solution as the CRS market leader in Asia.

2000s

Sabre Airline Solutions introduces the Sabre® Aerodynamic Traveler™ passenger processing solutions designed to expedite the airline check-in process and reduce long lines at airports through the use of curbside check-in, roving agents and self-serve kiosks.

And the migration of our massive air pricing application to HP NonStop™ Himalaya™ server platform was initiated. This technology is designed to migrate airfare pricing, schedules and availability from a proprietary mainframe system to an open system.