EXCEL AIRWAYS - THE NEW NAME FOR SABRE (Sabre)

Member Name: CHAGAN

Product:	Sabre
Date:	19/08/01 (658 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Leg Room, Friendly Staff, Complete Re-Brand

Disadvantages: Limited Destinations

Looking through the other opinions for this airline, and how bad most of them are, I think that it is only fair to let everyone know that Sabre has changed its name to 'Excel Airways', and all aircraft seem now to be operating under this livery.

The change occured on May 1st 2001, and seemed to be due to the bad press and reputation that it has amassed as Sabre. They are part of the Libra group of companies, who are responsible for the tour operators 'Priceright', 'Libra' and 'Goldenjoy'. The majority of seat allocations on most of their flights go to these companies, but they are also used by other operators including Kosmar, Goldensun, JMC, Airtours, Olympic/Odyssey, Intersky, Airglobe and others.

Many people will be pleased to know that they have phased out the Boeing 727 aircraft,which previously were the workhorse of their fleet (for anyone who is not familiar with this type of aircraft, these were the ones where you sometimes boarded through the back fuselage of the aircraft) in favour of the more modern Boeing 737 - 800 series mainly, and most of their aircraft are quite new from the production line. They were also in talks to charter a Boeing 767 aircraft from a major operator, enabling them to operate inter-continental flights (hence assisting their sister companies Florida operation, currently operated by Britannia and Monarch among others), this would be a brand new market for them.

From personal experience, I had never flewn with Sabre as they were, but have recently travelled with Excel, and can tell you that they seem to have recovered from their previous reputation, the leg room is good, there seems to be a plentiful supply of blankets and pillows (which on my return flight from Heraklion were on my seat waiting for me), and the food seems to have mooved on from a simple salad to a roast diner. I hope people will give them a second chance, and put behind them the previous Sabre, because yo
u would never know that they were once the same airline.

Summary: