NDC, airline distribution, travel apps, payments: CAPA presents a blockbuster travel agenda

Airline sales and distribution practices are evolving at a mind numbing rate. Apps are being developed that utilise the power of artificial intelligence combined with constantly adaptive robots, chatbots; payment models are being developed that will reshape the way we think of money; and, in the ever vital realm of distribution, there is almost a state of war.

Never in the history of the industry have so many moving pieces been under stress to adapt to a combination of new demands and technological advances.

On the one hand the airline is striving to escape the terrorism of commoditisation, experimenting with new options and trying to escape legacy practices. These are often rusted on, internally within the airline and externally with its providers, so change comes hard. But around it the world is in turmoil. Millennials are demanding instant satisfaction, using mobile to communicate and ever anxious to explore the latest technology. In essence, control has long since passed to the consumer.

Grasping back some of the initiative - or at least keeping in touch with fresh developments - occupies a leading space in any airline boardroom that is enlightened enough to grasp the paroxysms that characterise the new environment.

Session 3 of CAPA's World Aviation Summit in London on 12-Oct-2017 presents the industry's thought leaders in a three hour symposium that seeks to unravel some of the key changes under way and in prospect.

If it doesn't provide all the answers, it will at least lay out many of the challenges and the foundations for future decision making.