Our partnership with IATA for innovation recently took a major step with a groundbreaking proof-of-concept journey between Hong Kong and Tokyo. Two travellers used digital wallets and biometric ID for a seamless experience — no traditional documents required. This PoC validated IATA’s Modern Airline Retailing and One ID standards, showing that verifiable digital credentials can simplify the entire journey from booking to boarding.
Exciting times ahead as we work towards universal digital travel experiences, setting new standards in efficiency and data security for all travellers.
The airline industry keeps going forward and events like the IATA World Financial Symposium & World Passenger Symposium are a symbol of that. The 2024 edition brought together in Bangkok, Thailand, industry experts to address critical trends and challenges in aviation. The program featured topics essential for airline professionals, covering industry-transforming themes in distribution, finance, passenger experience, and accessibility.
We had the pleasure to be there, and we prepared a summary of the key topics that were discussed:
1. Sustainability and Net Zero Goals
The aviation industry’s path towards sustainability is complex. However, it shows important initiatives focused on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) adoption, fleet modernisation, innovative technologies, and collaborative efforts across stakeholders. While challenges remain —particularly concerning the development of new technologies and consumer behaviour — the commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is driving significant changes within the sector.
2. Digital Currencies and Payment Innovation
The integration of digital currencies and innovative payment solutions is reshaping the aviation landscape. As airlines respond to consumer demand for more flexible payment options, they also stand to benefit from reduced transaction costs and improved operational efficiencies. With ongoing advancements in technology, particularly in blockchain and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), the future of payments in aviation looks promising.
3. Seamless Passenger Journeys and Modern Retailing
The airline industry is evolving rapidly, with a strong emphasis on enhancing passenger journeys through technology-driven solutions and modern retailing strategies. By focusing on seamless experiences and personalised services, airlines aim to meet the changing demands of travellers while optimising operational efficiencies and revenue streams.
4. Passenger Accessibility and Design
The trends in passenger accessibility and design reflect a significant shift towards inclusivity within the aviation industry. By prioritising innovative seating solutions, leveraging technology, streamlining processes, enhancing cabin experiences, committing to staff training, and fostering collaboration, airlines aim to create a more accessible travel experience that benefits all passengers.
5. Revenue and Cost Management in Airline Finance
The airline industry is navigating a complex environment shaped by technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, regulatory pressures, and the recovery from the pandemic. By embracing trends like dynamic pricing, investment in digital infrastructure, and real-time monitoring systems, airlines can position themselves for sustainable growth in an ever-evolving market landscape.
6. AI’s Role in Finance and Operational Transformation
The adoption of AI in the airline industry represents a transformative shift towards more efficient operations, enhanced customer service, improved safety protocols, and sustainable practices. As these technologies evolve, they promise to redefine the future of air travel significantly.
7. Industry Standards and Cross-functional Collaboration
Airlines are actively addressing the challenges posed by siloed operations through enhanced communication strategies, agile methodologies, technological integration, and cultural shifts towards collaboration. This trend of collaboration is vital for improving overall efficiency and customer satisfaction in an increasingly competitive market.
The IATA WFS & WPS 2024 provided a comprehensive outlook on the airline industry’s future, covering pivotal topics from digital transformation to sustainability, finance, and passenger experience. This event underscored that for airlines to thrive, they must adapt rapidly to emerging technologies, evolving customer expectations, and regulatory demands.
The event illustrated the airline industry’s roadmap to a more resilient, innovative, and sustainable future. For airline professionals, the key takeaway is clear — success will be shaped by those who adapt to changes with agility.
Airlines need to embrace new technologies, meeting passenger expectations, and committing to a greener, customer-centric aviation model. As these strategies take hold, they will transform how airlines operate, deliver value, and lead the way in global travel.
The average airline web portals is not broken. It loads, it sells tickets. It technically does what it's supposed to do.
And yet, the experience feels tiring.
You notice it when you try to do something simple. Change a seat. Find your gate. Understand what happens if a flight is delayed. Suddenly you are scanning long pages, decoding airline terminology, clicking back and forth just to stay oriented.
The problem is not with the features, It is effort effort required in getting from A to B.
Airline portals still expect travellers to think like systems. To understand menus, categories, fare families, ancillaries, rules. But travellers arrive with something much simpler. Intent.
They want to get something done and get on with their journey.
This article posits that airline web portals should stop behaving like navigation systems and start acting as intent-aware decision environments. When UX is designed to reduce effort, adapt to context, and quietly support travellers at each stage of the journey, portals become calmer to use, easier to trust, and far more effective for airlines.
The basics still matter more than airlines think
Before talking about AI or personalisation, it is worth being honest about the fundamentals.
You can see that accessibility standards aren’t yet being applied and portals aren’t optimised for mobile, which results in performance drops. Navigation feels heavier than it needs to be. Search often works, but only if you already know what to ask and how the airline expects you to ask it.
These are not exciting topics, but they shape everything that comes after. If a portal is slow, confusing, or inaccessible, no amount of intelligence layered on top will fix the experience.
At Branchspace, we see this repeatedly. Airlines want to move faster, personalise more, experiment. But the UX foundation is not always ready to support that ambition.
Where portals lose traveller trust
The biggest UX issues are rarely dramatic, they are subtle and cumulative:
- A vague error message that offers no next step
- A long paragraph that hides the one thing the traveller needs to know
- Three different words for the same concept depending on where you are in the journey
- A mobile page that technically works but feels endless
In isolation these are small instances, but they compound to create friction for a user. And friction erodes confidence.
Travellers begin to hesitate, scan more carefully, and spend extra effort just trying to stay oriented. They stop trusting that the portal will help them when things go wrong. Good UX goes beyond delight, it is about reassurance.
Decision-making is the real job of UX
Every airline portal is a decision-making environment:
- Choose a flight
- Choose a fare
- Choose a seat
- Decide whether to rebook or wait
The role of UX is not to present all options equally. It is to reduce the mental work required to choose well.
That is where simple principles matter more than flashy ideas: clear visual hierarchy, familiar patterns, plain language, and progressive disclosure.
When these are done properly, travellers stop analysing the interface and start moving confidently through it.
This is also where intent-led thinking becomes powerful. When portals are designed around tasks rather than pages, complexity begins to fall away naturally.
What changes when you design for intent
When you stop designing for navigation and start designing for intent, the portal behaves differently:
- Shift the focus to intent and the portal begins to respond in new ways
- Search leads the experience rather than sitting in the background
- Logged-in travellers with an upcoming trip see what they can do next, instead of being asked to explore
This is the direction we have been taking with platforms like Triplake by allowing the portal to respond to context, trip stage, loyalty status and behaviour.
Where AI actually helps and where it should stay quiet
AI has a role in airline UX, but it works best when it stays in the background rather than taking centre stage. The strongest AI-driven experiences are often the ones you barely notice, because the interface feels simpler and the path forward feels clearer.
That might mean routing a traveller straight to the right outcome based on a natural language query, or surfacing the most relevant rebooking option when a disruption occurs. In other moments, it is about removing repetition altogether, using known preferences to spare travellers from making the same choices again and again.
At its best, AI offers clarity, supports decisions without trying to make them on the traveller’s behalf. People still want to feel in control of their journey, they just do not want to work so hard to get there.
The portal is becoming a living interface
The most interesting shift we are seeing has very little to do with technology and everything to do with behaviour. Airline portals are gradually moving away from being static websites and towards adaptive interfaces that respond to where a traveller is in their journey.
Before the trip, the portal helps you prepare. On the day of travel, it shifts into a supportive role, surfacing the information that matters most in the moment. Afterwards, it follows up, closing the loop rather than simply ending the experience.
Making this work demands modular design systems, flexible platforms, and teams that think beyond individual pages and flows. It is not an easy change, but it is both achievable and increasingly necessary.
