Southlake-based travel tech company Sabre Corp. will replace CEO Sean Menke in March as the company struggles to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sabre, which has lost more than $1.9 billion since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the travel industry, is installing company president Kurt Ekert as the new CEO after coming to Sabre a year ago. The company has narrowed losses, but still had a net loss of $165 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company reported in February.
In what the company says was a planned succession, Menke, 54, will move to executive chairman of Sabre’s board when the move takes place on April 27.
Sabre Corp. president Kurt Ekert came to the company in January 2022 from CWT. He is slated to become CEO in April 2023. (Courtesy Sabre Corp.)
Sabre is a major reservations booking platform for airlines, hotels and other companies within the travel world. But as the company’s revenue is dependent on ticket sales and hotel reservations, the company has struggled since the pandemic.
Its stock price is down nearly 75% since the end of 2019. The company still has about 2,000 fewer employees than it did in 2019.
“It has been an honor and privilege to help lead Sabre over the last eight years,” Menke said in a statement. “I am proud of what our teams have accomplished and how we’ve served our customers during unprecedented times.”
Sabre brought in Ekert, 52, last year to oversee sales, commercial, operating, product and technology aspects of the company after five years of leading business meetings and conference company CWT.
Menke joined Sabre in 2015 as president of Sabre Travel Network after a career that included a three-year stint as CEO of Frontier Airlines.
Sabre CEO Sean Menke will move into the executive chairman role in April. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)
But while airlines have been able to take advantage of higher fares to return to profitability, Sabre has been hindered by the continuing lag of business travelers and lower overall air travel volumes compared to 2019 due to the ongoing shortage of pilots across the industry.
Sabre was founded in 1969 as the reservation arm of American Airlines, now based in Fort Worth. American spun off Sabre as its own company in 1996.
CEO exits are on the rise to start this year, with 112 leaving their posts in January, according to a report released Tuesday by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was a 12% increase over December and the highest monthly total since 150 CEOs exited in May 2022.
Sean Menke, CEO of Southlake-based travel tech firm Sabre Corp., stepping down
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