Sabre Airline Solutions has announced an expanded relationship with Dubai-based carrier Emirates at IATA’s annual Schedules Conference in Boston this week.

Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, will enhance its flight scheduling activity by implementing Sabre SlotManager enabling it to more efficiently manage and track its slot rights at airports.
Emirates, which already uses Sabre technology to optimize its operations, selected Sabre SlotManager because of its extensive experience and proven ability to deliver visible efficiencies that result in significant cost savings across an airline’s operations.

Azhar Kapadwanjwala, Vice President Schedule Planning & Network Optimisation, Emirates, said: “As a growing network, slots are a very valuable asset and it’s important we use them efficiently. Thanks to Sabre SlotManager we now have a centralised database for managing and growing our slots portfolio.”

Part of the Sabre AirFlite suite which provides scheduling and planning solutions, Sabre SlotManager enables airlines to manage and track its slot rights at IATA slot-coordinated airports. Key features include the ability to streamline slot request processes, evaluate and obtain slots for last-minute schedule changes, identify opportunities to take advantage of under-utilized slots, minimize the risk of losing valuable historic slots, and ensure slot requests meet the IATA standard.

Maher Koubaa, Vice President for Sabre Airline Solutions in Middle East and Africa, said that in order to generate revenue and reduce operating costs, airlines must continually decide which markets to serve, when to fly and which type of aircraft to assign to a specific route. It also needs to track slot rights at international slot-coordinated airports, as well as evaluate the profitability of various scheduling alternatives and codeshare opportunities to stay ahead of the competition.

“Optimizing slot and flight schedules will help Emirates significantly reduce costs throughout its existing network of 99 destinations, while also supporting the carrier’s expansion into new markets by enabling the profitability of new airports to be evaluated. Airlines already using Sabre SlotManager have reduced time spent preparing slot requests by as much as 90 percent over previous manual methods. For airlines operating at a congested hub, what used to take a week or two can now be accomplished in a couple of hours.”

Emirates currently flies to 99 destinations in over 60 countries and will use Sabre SlotManager for both its passenger and cargo operations. It joins over 40 airlines that have chosen Sabre SlotManager to manage their slots including Alitalia, British Airways, Delta, Qantas and Virgin Blue.