Deconstructing The Digital Airline And What It Means For Airline Distribution
In an increasingly digitalised economy, airlines understand the need to innovate in order to cater to growing traveller expectations centred on mobility, seamlessness and personalisation, particularly in relation to the booking and shopping experience. This is not an easy task in the wake of decades of legacy thinking and antiquated distribution systems preventing airlines from becoming true end to end travel providers. While new industry standards like IATA’s NDC have mapped out a pathway to better airline retailing and – and indeed the three major GDS and some major airlines are now adopting the standard – there is still a notable chunk of smaller airlines, LCCs, OTAs and travel content aggregators who have yet to undergo full NDC implementation. Are we seeing a new ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ emerging? And, if we are, who is going to be offering services to bridge this gap – will it be the GDS and IT providers, other airlines or speciality providers? Or is this an opportunity for the new disruptive players to get a slice of the distribution pie?
- Why is digital innovation strategically important to the airline business?
- Are we seeing a growing gap between the digitally innovative airlines and those without a digital drive?
- How does airline.com compete in the era of conversational converse and new channels like voice, Google Assist and Amazon Alexa? Are there other distribution channels which airlines are underutilising?
- Unlocking the true potential of disruptive players and technology such as blockchain: just how is it going to usurp the existing value travel distribution chain?
- Digital and virtual payments – how are these new payment solutions enabling travel mobility and at what cost?
Moderator: Web In Travel, Founder, Siew Hoon Yeoh
Panellists:
- Amadeus, Regional Director Airlines South Pacific , Sunil Joseph
- HRG Worldwide, Managing Director, David Lorimer
- Travelport, Vice President Asia Pacific, Air Commerce, Chris Ramm