Turkish Airlines and Sabre have put to bed an ongoing bugbear for travel advisors dealing with Turkey’s national carrier by signing a new distribution agreement.
In what it calls “an important milestone” in the airline’s distribution strategy, Turkish announced that “after lengthy and meticulous negotiations, we have reached a mutually beneficial agreement with Sabre on common terms”.
“This agreement will reinvigorate our cooperation that began years ago, and will make Turkish Airlines content accessible again on the Sabre platform as of June 24, 2025,” the carrier said in a message to its trade partners.
“Another noteworthy aspect of the agreement is that it covers not only conventional distribution technologies, but also the NDC (New Distribution Capability) channel, which is a modern and advanced solution.
“In this context, we aim to diversify the access opportunities we offer to our agencies and to shape the digital transformation in the industry.
“Together, we sincerely believe that this new phase of the Turkish Airlines-Sabre cooperation, which has been established in 1990, will make significant contributions to you – our esteemed agencies – Sabre and Turkish Airlines.
“We will provide more detailed information regarding the NDC integration with Sabre to you in the upcoming days.
“We would like to thank you for your trust, support and cooperation in this process.”
Until recently, the airline and GDS were unable to see eye to eye on a new distribution deal, a situation some agents had expressed grievances over.
Earlier this year, David Wright, Managing Director of South Australian-based Travel Prospects, told Karryon he would not feel confident booking Turkish Airlines until “the spat with Sabre” had been fully resolved.
“I as a Sabre agent… can not make new bookings; I can not monitor clients’ changes of times etc, unless I go to ‘manage my booking’ with TK, but it does not allow the same access as Sabre,” he said.
“I have lost all real access to my ticketed business class bookings. And as a professional agent, I am now very hesitant in booking TK any longer.”
Other agents voiced similar complaints to Karryon when asked about the airline’s level of customer service since touching down in Australia for the first time in March 2024.
Despite this, many agents have lauded the airline’s onboard offering.
“No one’s had a problem with them [in the air]. They keep winning awards for their service in flight,” Victorian-based, MTA Mobile Travel Agent Darren Leckie told Karryon, regarding TK’s inflight experience.
David Wright added, “It’s a good product, but it’s hard to sell”. Hopefully, that won’t be the case for Aussie travel advisors anymore.
TK debuted in Australia with one-stop Istanbul-Melbourne (via Kuala Lumpur) flights. It followed this route shortly afterwards with the launch of its Istanbul-Sydney service (also via KL). The carrier plans to fly nonstop between Turkey and Australia by 2026.
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