Sabre Travel Network during the first quarter processed 103 million direct billable bookings,

up 4.4 percent year over year. That included a 4.5 percent increase in air bookings and 4 percent rise in non-air bookings. Sabre cited strong growth across the Middle East, Europe and Africa and, "despite challenging weather," low-single-digit growth in North America. Sabre claimed its "booking share" improved marginally to 35.4 percent. Sabre Travel Network also reported a 3.5 percent increase in revenue to $492 million and a 2.2 percent rise in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to $215 million. "Global travel industry growth was very healthy in the first quarter, with our airline and hotel customers experiencing solid demand," according to a statement from Sabre president and CEO Tom Klein. For all of Sabre, revenue declined $4 million to $755 million, adjusted EBITDA dropped 4.6 percent to $184 million and consolidated net loss narrowed to $2.8 million from $15.8 million in the year-earlier period. Financial performance was negatively impacted by planned changes at Sabre's Travelocity, which last year entered an agreement through which Expedia will power U.S. and Canadian websites.