Despite a tepid market for initial public stock offerings, American Airlines' parent AMR announced plans Thursday to spin off a piece of its Sabre technology business.

Sabre runs the largest computer reservation system in the USA. Travel agents use Sabre to book more than one-third of airline tickets sold worldwide. Airlines pay a fee to Sabre each time an agent uses the system to book a reservation. Last year, Sabre's $1.5 billion in revenue accounted for only 10% of AMR's revenue but nearly 45% of its operating profit.

By becoming a separately traded company, Sabre can diversify and build its other divisions, industry analysts say. Sabre operates three other units, including Sabre Computer Services, which runs its reservations service (CRS); Sabre Decision Technologies, which provides computer services to businesses; and Sabre Interactive, which markets Sabre reservation services through the Internet and on-line services.