At Aviation Festival Asia, the commercial leaders panel looked at how passenger behaviours have changed since the pandemic and the ways airline commercial leaders can adapt their RM, retailing, loyalty, and network planning strategies to keep up.

During the conversation, the panellists reflected on the airline industry and its relationship with technology. Looking at overcoming the constraints of legacy tech, re-evaluating during the pandemic, and more the panellists broadly agreed with Aboudy Nasser’s assessment (CCO, Oman Air) that “technology is an enabler, it’s people that make the change.” The theme of technology underpinned the entire session which looked at a variety of topics including the booking preferences of millennials, artificial intelligence (AI), data, ancillaries, fare matching, NDC, and more.

Focusing in on data, this panel discussed the key question: what do we do with it? One answer explored hyper personalisation, using technology like chatGPT to present a relevant bundle thereby showing care to the individual at a scale that is otherwise difficult to achieve. Another theme of conversation turned to AI, looking at its role in forecasting demand and a transition towards decisions being taken, not just guided by AI.

The session concluded with panellists stating their predictions rooted in any point of discussion during the session. To find out what these commercial leaders answered, watch the full session.