CRSs Demonstrate Revenue Growth
<B> CRSs Demonstrate Revenue Growth</B>
By Mary Ann McNulty
Buoyed by international growth and the rate increases imposed earlier this year, publicly traded CRS suppliers Galileo International and The Sabre Group fought the market slump with amazing revenue jumps in the third quarter. Revenues for Galileo rose 10.1 percent to $377.5 million, while Sabre's jumped 32 percent to $604 million.
Included in Sabre's figures is a 77 percent revenue growth in its information technology solutions unit, "due largely to the US Airways IT outsourcing contract," said Michael Durham, president and CEO of The Sabre Group, Fort Worth, Texas. "Our electronic travel distribution business grew a solid 10 percent because of our expanding presence in international markets, a booking fee price increase implemented earlier this year and growth in non-booking fee revenues."
Excluding $9 million it received from a lawsuit, Sabre's net earnings grew 11 percent to $62 million. Galileo reported economic earnings of $61 million for the quarter, up 19 percent over the $51.2 million reported for the same period the year before.
Galileo's electronic global distribution business reported a 10.6 percent revenue rise for the quarter. The operating margin improved 1.3 points to 22.9 percent for the quarter. As in the past few quarters, air and total bookings made in the United States dropped from the same period a year ago, while air bookings made outside the United States rose 8.5 percent and car/hotel/leisure bookings jumped 14 percent.
Pegasus Systems Inc., the Dallas-based hotel reservations company, reported a 35 percent rise in third quarter revenues, to $7.8 million. However, the company reported a net loss of $472,000 due to a one-time charge of $2.7 million for research and development expenses related to its acquisition of Driving Revenue LLC.
"Each of our core services report record transaction volumes during the quarter," said Pegasus president and CEO John Davis III. Pegasus added hotels to its online Travelweb database, which listed 22,000 properties in 165 countries as of Sept. 30, 21 percent more than last year. Pegasus provides its distribution service to more than 30 other Websites, 56 percent more than the previous quarter.
Amadeus and Worldspan are owned by airlines and do not disclose their financials.