Google Cloud, AI, NDC and More - Airline Retailing Interview with Darren Rickey, Sabre

(19 May 2022, 09:46 +07)  Pre-COVID19, airlines and the travel industry in general could use historical data to plan how they were going to move forward, how they'd position fares, which markets and demographics within those markets they would target and when, and how they would convert those plans into actual sales.

Darren Rickey

That is no longer possible because nobody really knows how travel is going to recover. There are a growing number of indicators and plenty of forecasts, but the truth is we simply do not know.

So what can airlines do? How will machine learning, AI and the ever-increasing speed of computers help us to forecast and strategise?

To answer those questions, Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com speaks with Darren Rickey, Senior Vice President of Airline Global Sales and Accounts at Sabre.

Darren started his career in 1997 with Ansett in Australia before joining Sabre Airline Solutions in Hong Kong in 2000. Over two decades later and Darren is still as passionate and positive about the airline industry, travel and the company as he has ever been.

In this exclusive video interview, filmed over the internet on 18 May 2022, Darren tells us more about how Sabre is using Google Cloud to improve its airline solutions, why the company chose to work with Google Cloud rather than another provider, at what stage the migration is at and when Sabre expects its migration to the Cloud to be complete.

We talk about the future of airline distribution, whether NDC is moving forward as quickly as Sabre would like, what role NDC has to play for low cost carriers and how the COVID19 pandemic has accelerated plans for airlines to upgrade their distribution strategies and systems.

We discuss Sabre's airline solutions, including Radixx which Sabre acquired in late 2019, and how the distribution needs of a LCC differ from more the more traditional airlines.

Darren also tells us more about the importance of AI and machine learning, what such technologies will mean to airlines and how Sabre is using such technology to improve its services. All that and much, much more in the exclusive interview available in both video and podcast formats below.

Airline Retailing Interview with Darren Rickey, Sabre

PODCAST

Editor's note: As the above video interview was conducted over the internet, I would like to apologise that the audio and visual quality are not up to the same HD/UHD quality that they normally would be. Hopefully it won't be too long until we are once again conducting exclusive video interviews in person, but for now we have to make do with what we have. Thank you.

See also: Future of Airline Distribution and NDC - Interview with Yanik Hoyles, IATA and Travel Industry Interview with Kurt Ekert, President of Sabre.