Emirates and Sabre Ink 10-year Global Airline Distribution Agreement

15th September 2008 Dubai-based Emirates, the largest aviation and travel services company in the Middle East, has signed a 10-year global airline distribution agreement with world-leading travel distribution provider Sabre Travel Network. The agreement was signed by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group; and Sam Gilliland, CEO of Sabre Holdings. Effective immediately, this agreement provides Sabre Connected travel agencies and corporations around the world with easy and efficient access to Emirates full content fares for the next 10 years through the Sabre global distribution system (GDS). As the worlds largest GDS with more corporate and online customers than any other GDS in the marketplace, Sabre Travel Network provides Emirates the ability to reach more corporate and leisure travellers using a multi-channel distribution strategy. Keith Longstaff, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Worldwide, said: “In the past months, we have been working to align our distribution arrangements to support Emirates planned growth in terms of fleet and route expansion, particularly with the arrival of more A380 aircraft. “Sabre enjoys global leadership in the corporate and online travel space, and has an impressive breadth and depth of travel services across both traditional and emerging channels. We are confident that Sabre is an ideal partner to help us accelerate our global growth and support our fleet expansion plans, and look forward to working with them to achieve this using our combined strengths, said Longstaff.