Correspondence: Gordon Locke, Sabre Airline Solutions, Sabre Travel Network E-mail: gordon.locke@sabre.com

¹is Vice-President of Airline Marketing for the Travel Industry Group at Sabre. He is responsible for global airline marketing and airline segment strategy for Sabre Airline Solutions and Sabre Travel Network, including portfolio positioning for solutions to help airlines better market, sell, serve and operate. The portfolio includes products and services for airline multi-channel distribution, customer sales, service, commercial planning and operational excellence. Before joining Sabre, he was Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Hawaiian Airlines.

Received 14 September 2008; Revised 14 September 2008; Published online 8 January 2009.

Abstract

Airlines today must start looking further into the future of airline distribution to better understand key factors that will converge on a 5-year horizon. This paper highlights these factors and provides actionable insights into how an airline can start preparing for the future.