Sabre’snewCEOisSeanMenke,aformerairlineboss

Travel technology giant Sabre has appointed Sean Menke its new chief executive, to replace Tom Klein, who chose to step down earlier this year.

Until now Menke was in charge of Sabre Travel Network, the company’s global distribution system (GDS) arm.

Before coming to Sabre, Menke was chief operations officer and executive vice president at Hawaiian Airlines and CEO at Frontier. As a former airline executive, he knows how such executives think about distribution — a key insight for Sabre as it seeks to expand its business worldwide.

Years ago, as COO at Air Canada, he was the individual that pulled the airline’s content from Sabre in frustration at how the GDS was displaying its content relative to Air Canada’s competitors.

Today he believes that things have changed. The industry’s needs have evolved, and GDS technology has improved, too. He touts Sabre’s new tools for helping airlines sell “customized” fares and ancillary products, plus new options that will be offered to travel agencies next year with the launch of the next-generation agency desktop Sabre Red.