Sabre Corporation, the leading technology provider to the global travel industry, today announced a new global distribution partnership with Eastar Jet, in line with the airline's vision to go beyond Asia and popularise air travel by creating a reasonable cost air travel solution for Asia Pacific passengers.

Over the past five years, Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) have added over 1,000 airport pairs and are operating at higher load capacities. This increase in frequency, capacity and connected city pairs illustrates a dramatic increase in connectivity within Asia Pacific. Eastar Jet currently flies to various cities in Asia Pacific, including Korea, Japan, China and South-East Asia. Effective first quarter 2018, Eastar Jet will have access to the Sabre Travel Marketplace, connecting them to more than 425,000 travel agents globally.

"LCCs are revolutionizing the way people travel, for both short and long-haul flights. This trend is most prevalent in Northeast Asia, where LCCs currently account for approximately half of the market, and are expected to overtake full service airlines for the first time in the near future[ii]," said Rakesh Narayanan, vice president of Air Commerce, Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific.

"In Korea, the first half of 2017 saw international flight passengers who took LCCs increase by 49.1 percent, whereas flag carriers saw a 3.2 percent decrease within the same timeframe. By offering rich airline content for our customers and agencies, we are confident of helping Eastar Jet grow into a global airline of choice," he added.

Son Doo Sang, executive senior vice president, Eastar Jet said, "With Sabre's extensive global network, we selected them as our partner to propel us beyond Asia. This is a strong testament of our deep relationship. Today, almost one-third of Korean travellers fly internationally on LCCs and we believe this partnership will enable us to continue to fuel our growth in international markets and continue to provide value as one of the fastest growing low-cost carriers in Korea."

Contributed by Sabre