CAE announces closing of acquisition for Sabre’s Airline Operations portfolio

MONTREAL — On Mar. 1, CAE announced that it has concluded the previously announced acquisition of Sabre’s Airline Operations portfolio (formerly known as AirCentre solutions), a suite of flight and crew management and optimization solutions, for an enterprise value of US$ 392.5 million. The acquisition includes the Sabre Airline Operations product portfolio, related technology and intellectual property as well as the transfer of the workforce.

“We are very pleased to welcome Sabre’s Airline Operations customers and employees to CAE,” said Marc Parent, CAE’s President and CEO. “This acquisition, in addition to our ongoing technological transformation and our previous acquisitions of Merlot and RB Group, allows us to expand our reach into digitally-enabled flight and crew management and optimization services and create additional value for our customers”.

Parent added: “CAE’s Flight Services solutions allow us to help airlines and business jet operators globally to better manage their operations, decrease costly scheduling disruptions, improve staffing and operational decision-making, and decrease fuel consumption and carbon emissions. This ecosystem also enables pilots and crew members to better manage their day-to-day activities, while supporting them throughout their training and career journeys. Our customers are increasingly adopting digital solutions to improve efficiency and operations, and we are thrilled about this opportunity to expand our suite of innovative civil flight services solutions.”

CAE has been carrying out a growth strategy with the intent to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic a more resilient, and more profitable company. The acquisition, the ninth accretive acquisition for CAE since the COVID-19 pandemic began, will further expand CAE’s reach across its customer base beyond simulators and pilot training and as a technology company in the growing marketplace for flight and crew operations solutions.

Over the past two years, CAE has been unifying its digital flight operations business with the goal of delivering a holistic suite of solutions designed to improve operations and unite airline, business jet operators and crew in a single digital ecosystem. With the addition of this suite of digital capabilities to the existing business, CAE will now engage with pilots at every point of their career life cycles, from training and flight preparation, planning and scheduling right through to in-flight route optimization, performance and analytics.