TECHNOLOGY
incorporated more widely into efforts to make aviation more sustainable, saying: “The big airlines have teams of people focusing on this, but it still feels a little fragmented and almost a line item on the annual report. Every airline talks a great story around sustainability, but I don’t see many systems being built, and certainly no AI systems to help with sustainability. But if you look at any sector, there is a bit of inconsistency around this.”
DIGITAL BORDERS AND DISTRIBUTION The next 12-18 months will see digital borders introduced across Europe. The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system will be fully in place from April and will be followed by the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) and European Travel Information and Authorisation (ETIAS) systems in Europe. But there are issues with biometric registration – fingerprint registering can only be done at the border, not remotely, for example – so the processes won’t be ‘seamless’ and the harmonisation of technologies remains elusive. Gauld said: “Biometric identity
is becoming increasingly important, primarily driven by security but also for seamless travel – making the process through the airport more efficient. There will need to be a level of standardisation. The challenge is that each country has its rationale for what it wants to do. At some point they will have to think about integration. But it’s not going to be easy because every country will have its requirements and use cases. I hope we’ll get to some level of commonality, but we’re nowhere near that and won’t be anywhere near for many years.” Major network carriers continue to
develop New Distribution Capability (NDC) technology and there is a steady stream of announcements of NDC ‘content’ being made available for sale through intermediaries.
FIGURE 45: TECH CHALLENGES: BUSINESS TRAVEL AGENTS % citing
%
10 20 30 40 50 60
0 56% 60% 55% 54% 34% 22% 18%
10 15 20 25 30 35
0 5
% point change YoY +32
+22 +23 +10 +12 n/a +11
Source: GBTA survey November 2024 Base: 895 GBTA members
CORPORATE travel companies face multiple technology challenges (Figure 45)
But travel management companies (TMCs) report distribution becoming ever more fragmented. Gauld suggested: “I have no idea
why we’re trying to persevere with this. We talked about how fragmented biometrics and digital identity is. NDC feels 100 times worse, and there doesn’t seem a clear way to make it better. If you want NDC to work, you almost need to go back to first principles, to the drawing board, and start from scratch – reinvent the whole process.” At present, he said: “It seems like
throwing good money after bad. If airlines want to do it, start again and look at a process which could add value for everyone. You can’t scrap it, but it needs a fundamental rethink. But I don’t think there is anyone prepared to take that on. Everyone has washed their hands of it.” Airlines talk about ‘modern retailing’
Biometric identity is becoming increasingly important
and hyper-personalisation through their own platforms and extending both through intermediaries. But Gauld noted: “At most airlines, the data shows the proportion of their business serviced through third parties is subtly decreasing. JQLRJbVۑWLb :LWK K\SHU SHUVRQDOLVDWLRQ
Travel Weekly Insight Report 2025 27
New tech, including NDC Budget constraints
Integrating existing systems AI
Data security/privacy Emissions data tracking
Lack of expertise
New tech, including NDC Budget constraints
Integrating existing systems AI
Data security/privacy Emissions data tracking
Lack of expertise
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