Southlake-based Sabre furloughing one-third of its workers amid coronavirus pandemic
Southlake-based Sabre Corp. has announced that it will furlough one-third of its worldwide workforce as the travel company battles the coronavirus pandemic.
Sabre has about 9,250 employees worldwide, with about 25% of those in North Texas., according to the Dallas Morning News. The company did not provide further details on how it would implement the furloughs.
Company officials said in a statement that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the travel industry. Weekly travel spending in the U.S. has fallen 85% from the same point a year ago, according to figures prepared for U.S. Travel Association by the analytics firm Tourism Economics.
By the end of April, 5.9 million travel-related jobs could be lost, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
“Over the last several months, Sabre has taken measures to tightly manage expenses, lower costs and strengthen our liquidity position,” according to a Sabre statement.
In March, the company reduced pay, curtailed spending and temporarily suspended 401(K) matches for employees in the United States.
“However, with no clear indication of when travel may resume, we are forced to make the difficult decision to take the next step,” according to the company statement.
Sabre officials did not release any information on how long the furloughs might last.
“Sabre is committed to maintaining its rigor and focus on cybersecurity, data privacy and supporting the core operations, critical business functions and services for our customers,” according to the Sabre statement.
