On 6 December 2022, IATA announced the establishment of the Modern Airline Retailing program to advance further the transformation towards true customer centricity and value creation in the airline industry.
The vision of this program is built around 3 pillars:
1. Customer identification
2. Retailing with Offers
3. Delivering with Orders
The program pillars will help ensure in a cohesive way a seamless digital experience for all customers and consistent service, irrespective of how they purchased their travel. Decades old standards, processes and technology will be replaced with a an open ecosystem of Offers and Orders only; and the hassle of increasingly complex passenger document checking requirements will be addressed too.
Accelerating the Transformation
The Modern Airline Retailing transformation will be accelerated by a Consortium of advanced airline adopters that will work together through IATA.
The Consortium will speed up this journey for the benefit of the entire industry. Its members will work together on specific topics, such as the end state from a technical point of view; and the possible technical pathways for how the industry to get there, together.
Our role at IATA will be to support this transformation by facilitating the development and the adoption of industry standards. IATA will also of course continue to engage with all value chain stakeholders throughout the journey.
For full details on the Modern Airline Retailing program, please read the IATA press release.