Sabre Corporation has confirmed it will cut as many as 800 jobs as it restructures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The travel tech giant said it would undertake a strategic realignment of its airline and agency-focused businesses, as well as other measures to support the new organisational structure.

Sean Menke, Sabre chief executive, stated: “Today, we announced a critical step toward completing our transformation into a new Sabre.

“We began this transformational journey over two years ago with the unveiling of our SabreNext strategy and the creation of our Travel Solutions organisation.

“Our leadership team has completed plans to strategically realign and fully combine Sabre’s airline and agency-focused businesses to provide a stronger, more seamless experience for our customers.”

A decision means a reduction in force that is expected to impact approximately 800 team members across 43 office locations.

The figure is in addition to the loss of approximately 400 participants in previously announced voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement programs.

Menke continued: “Sabre is mission-critical to the travel ecosystem.

“While we had to put certain initiatives and technology investments on hold in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we remain steadfast in our commitment to helping our customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalised travel experiences that benefit travellers, travel suppliers, and agencies.

“This pandemic has caused major shifts in the travel ecosystem resulting in the changing needs of our airline, hotel and agency customers.

“We have taken this opportunity to accelerate the organisational changes we began in 2018 to address the changing travel landscape.”

For those that remain, Sabre added it would restore employee compensation to 100 per cent of base pay, ending voluntary and involuntary pay reductions that took effect in March and April across the world.

Elsewhere in the global distribution sector, rivals Amadeus and Travelport have both sought to raise fresh liquidity to overcome the downturn.