Southwest Airlines has ended negotiations with Sabre for enhanced global distribution system participation, Southwest Business VP Dave Harvey told BTN.
In August, Southwest announced it reached agreements with both Travelport and Amadeus to provide content and full booking capabilities in their GDSs. Following discussions with Sabre, Southwest has decided to keep its relationship with Sabre unchanged, Harvey said.
"We do not see a path forward with Sabre, so we're no longer in negotiations for that," he said. "For customers that are on Sabre today booking Southwest at the current basic [level] of booking relationship, that will continue."
While Harvey said he would never say the door was permanently closed to reopening conversations, the carrier wants to "provide clarity to the marketplace" on its distribution plans. "With Sabre, we're still a partner with them on many things, and we will continue to work with them," he said.
The timeline for working with Travelport and Amadeus, meanwhile, has not changed, with content expected to be ready for bookings by the middle of this year, Harvey said. Right now, they are "slightly ahead of schedule," he said, although they still need to conduct more testing before they will be ready to give precise launch dates.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article was entitled "Southwest, Sabre End Enhanced Content Talks."