Every now and then we appear in industry articles, webinars and events.
Below is a collection where LeapShift and our people are contributing and mentioned.

How airlines are investing in their digital futures

While battling antiquated IT systems and legacy practices remains a significant barrier, most carriers are investing in their digital futures, cognisant of the big revenue and cost benefits
“Very few airlines look at digital technology and innovation as a fundamental policy pillar,” says Alex Cruz, the former chairman and chief executive of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling. “How many airlines for instance have a chief digital officer as opposed to a chief information officer?”
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“The fact that LCCs own and control their own APIs [application programming interfaces – the software that connects two parties without any user intervention] is the main difference between them and network carriers,” says Ann Cederhall, a travel technology expert at consultancy LeapShift
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Retail: Emerging trends, innovation, and key themes with Ann Cederhall

As the industry’s landscape evolves, innovation is key. At World Aviation Festival, Ann Cederhall, Consultant at LeapShift will be sitting down with industry leaders, facilitating discussion around the future of PSS, new modal connections, NDC, emerging trends, and much more.
In this short interview, Ann, author of The State of Airline Retailing whitepaper, highlights a few key trends to look out for at the event and outlines how these will be explored.
This year’s retail agenda is packed with thought-provoking sessions working through industry challenges, exploring the impact of new tech, and empowering the adoption of innovative strategies.
Some of the key industry speakers include Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Chief Commercial Officer and Member of the Management Board, Swiss International Air Lines; Julio Rodriguez, Chief Commercial Strategy Officer, IAG; Tiddo Veldhuis, Director Product Strategy, KLM; and Justin Jovignot, Director, Commercial Strategy and Distribution, TAP Air Portugal.

Central Reservations

The distribution landscape’s backbone for decades, legacy global distribution systems are now grappling with keeping content together

When GDS is mentioned in travel trade circles, the first word association is of those long-established holders and distributors of content. In the words of Angel Gallego, executive vice president distribution for Amadeus, “GDSs were created to give scale to the industry – we needed to build consumption at a global level. We put in one place all the content you [agents] need to sell.

Travel retailing – where are we now?

Retailing in travel is about being able to sell whatever an entity intends to – could be air ancillaries and non-air ancillaries backed by fulfilment and service capabilities. Another component in today’s context is aligning the way a consumer expects it (adhering to their choice, flexibility, data privacy etc.) – say a buy now pay later or subscription offering.

So where do airlines stand?

Airline trends and predictions to look out for in 2023

The airline industry has been through the wringer the past couple of years—a pandemic that brought the industry to its knees, followed by a surge in demand that it couldn’t keep up with due to staff shortages. However, it is expected that 33.8 million flights will have transported 3.8 billion passengers by the end of 2022 and that industry revenues will have reached $782 billion (up nearly 55% from 2021 and 93.3% from 2019). The IATA’s outlook for the industry indicates industry-wide profitability in 2023.

However, airlines are facing eye-watering fuel costs, with Brent crude oil prices kept high due to the war in Ukraine and the high spread between crude and jet fuel prices well above historical averages due to refinery capacity constraints. When fuel accounts for 24% of overall costs (up from 5% since 2021) and is the industry’s largest cost item (with a $192-billion price tag), it is imperative that airlines get creative with finding new ways to increase profitability while minimizing cost.

Airline Travel Payments Summit 2022 London

The 16th Annual Airline & Travel Payments Summit (ATPS) was held in London on 15th and 16th of June 2022.

The last physical ATPS was also held near London in May 2019. It was themed “Engage, Experience and Execute,” looking at how to embrace the Internet of Things and the Internet of Commerce to improve our payments and fraud preventi

Retrofitting Payments Webinar

This webinar was part of the series of webinars organized by Airline Information and Up in the Air travel payments consultancy on “NDC” Retrofitting Payments.” It focussed on the settlement component of Airline Retailing in indirect Distribution

IATA’s New Distribution Capability, or NDC, is nothing more than an XML based standard that facilitates airlines and others in the travel space to sell more effectively online. In others words, it allows airlines and other travel companies to have “offer and order management” to be more profitable online retailers.

Know Your Passenger

Passenger communication landscape in aviation is transforming rapidly. Covid changed the rules how we communicate with our passengers. The most prominent trend is leveraging customer insights arriving from different platforms, such as an airline’s outsourced call centers and its own OMS. Ann Cederhall, aviation technology specialist, consultant of LeapShift, reveals how connecting comms platforms with each other can increase operation efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer experience.

– What is an OMS actually and can we say that all airlines should have one?

EasyJet’s Rail Deal Highlights New Airline Sector Way of Selling Trains and Flights

Airlines need to work more closely with railway operators to fend off climate change activists. But they also need to test new technological ways of selling content from other suppliers. Let's think beyond joint ventures, codeshares, and interlining.

EasyJet and Deutsche Bahn began selling in late July combination tickets that include flights and rail travel, Skift has learned. The deal is notable for a behind-the-scenes aspect. Europe’s second-biggest discount airline is using a new method to sell the tickets from the German railway operator.

Q&A Travel Retail and the New World of Distribution: A Deep Dive into NDC, ONE Order, Open API and Direct Connect.

In This Short Post Event Session, We Addressed The Following Questions That Were Sent In By The Audience:

  • Are EMDs needed in the new world of Distribution?
  • What’s the point of IATA’s ONE Order since NDC has an order management system?
  • What happens to GDS and PSS as a result of NDC?
  • How does NDC and new distribution help loyalty programs?
  • How do payments and fraud prevention fit into NDC?
  • ...

Travel Retail and the New World of Distribution: A deep dive into NDC, ONEOrder, Direct Connect and Open API

For this webinar we, unlike at most conferences and forums, took a look at the myths surrounding NDC, ONE Order and all related buzz words. We enabled participants to:

  • Feel comfortable to ask those questions that we seldom hear
  • Gain understanding of what these concepts mean and if they are the right fit for you. There is no one size fits all.
  • Find out if it possible to run your business differently from the traditional way airlines and travel companies are run?
  • Find out why we think that commoditisation of the airline products is a natural progression
  • ...

Foreign airlines start counting on TravelSky to modernize distribution

ChinaTravelNews, Ritesh Gupta – Airlines have been grappling with cash reserves for months, and in this context, every move needs to be justified from revenue generation perspective. Which project to prioritize and how to sustain the business is of paramount importance. For airlines, it is critical to provide detailed information at all the stages of shopping and via all the touchpoints/ channels, including through indirect distribution partners, as they try to come up with a relevant offer.

Being in control of the offer has been one of the luring aspects of NDC or New Distribution Capability, a data exchange standard developed by IATA to facilitate communication between airlines and agencies.

To pay or not to pay for NDC content – the latest saga in NDC

Key aspects of airline indirect distribution including GDS surcharge, distribution of content, booking flow of shop, order, pay etc. are being assessed in Europe.

Post the recent deal between the Air France-KLM group and Amadeus and the news of Lufthansa opting to hike GDS surcharge by 30% or so, the timing as well as the nature of the same is being probed.

Commenting on the recent Air France-KLM and Amadeus deal, experienced airline distribution and technology executive, Ann Cederhall said, “Private channel is not a new concept and kudos if the administration of the deals can easily be managed by the airline. The agent will in the private channel get a discount on the GDS surcharge and only pay a few euros for the NDC content, this is a first as I see it.”

Travel Massive Live Show Grounded

Join us LIVE every Thursday as we'll be discussing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on travel and tourism worldwide.

This discussion will be moderated by Kevin O'Shaughnessy and we invite all members with something to share about the impact on their travel business to contribute.

This week the focus is on the aviation industry.

What the Sabre-Farelogix Antitrust Trial Could Reveal About Airline Technology

It's notable that we had a much easier time finding experts who supported Sabre's proposed merger of Farelogix than opponents. But this court case will be decided on legal nuances, and its outcome is impossible to predict. We pity the judge who has to endure this crash course in airline technology and distribution.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday began arguing its antitrust lawsuit against Sabre over the travel tech company’s planned $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, a technology business.

Securing the right skills

The technical requirements in the aviation industry are getting more complex, but the challenge is made much simpler by identifying the right talent to take advantage of the digitisation trend, writes Byron Calmonson, director at The Resourcing Hub

Speaking at a conference in early September, the director-general of IATA Alexandre de Juniac said: "Airlines that have not properly integrated the digital revolution in their day-to-day business will die."

Aviation business leaders need to invest in technology now or suffer the consequences.

Is aviation tech a boys' club?

More air transport businesses need to invest in female students to help them pursue engineering and technology careers, while also supporting them more effectively as they develop into leaders, writes Byron Calmonson, director of The Resourcing Hub

I was thrilled to read about an initiative by Airbus and Bristol University's Faculty of Engineering to encourage young women to consider engineering and technology degrees. A group of school girls were invited to a day of aerospace lectures as well as hands-on lab experiments. The aim was to raise awareness of the many exciting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) career opportunities the aviation world offers.

Ai Editorial: Reshaping IT for future, LCCs are just better prepared for it

Airlines’ approach towards retailing and their IT infrastructure has been under scrutiny for a while now.

In today’s era where digital transformation is paving for personalisation and enabling passengers to be in better control of their journey, it’s imperative to assess how full service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs) are positioned to move on.

So how does the overall IT infrastructure at FSCs and LCCs for supporting core operations differs?

Ai Editorial: Interest in NDC not withering, but still there is little to “see”

The buzz around NDC data transmission standard has settled down.

So where do we stand today?

If respecting a traveller’s choice of who they fly with, the channel they choose to book their seats and being aware of what all airlines have to offer are major areas, then there are signs that NDC is proving to be fruitful. British Airways says this is what NDC is enabling them to do.

But at the same time one can’t ignore the slow adoption of this modern messaging language among the airline community.