London, May 9th 2024 – Branchspace, a leading travel technology software provider and digital transformation consultancy, is pleased to announce the latest appointment of two key members to their growing team. Andrew Webster recently joined as the Director of Airline Offer & Order Consulting, boasting extensive experience in the airline industry while Chris Barnfield joined as Finance Director, bringing a wealth of experience from fast growing technology B2B companies.
Andrew Webster, a seasoned leader in the aviation industry, brings a wealth of experience from his distinguished tenure at renowned organizations including British Airways, IAG (Hangar 51), and Accelya. Throughout his career, Webster has been at the forefront of driving digital transformation and fostering innovation. His strategic vision and unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries have consistently propelled these companies to new heights.
Specializing in airline commercial systems, Webster has a proven track record of effecting industry-wide change through strategic collaborations with key stakeholders, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA). His deep understanding of the industry landscape and his ability to leverage cutting-edge technologies make him uniquely positioned to lead Branchspace's consulting efforts in Airline Offer & Order.
In his new role, Webster is set to steer airlines towards the future of Modern Airline Retailing. With his passion for innovation and dedication to driving results, Webster is poised to empower airlines to thrive in today's dynamic market environment.
Chris brings a wealth of expertise to Branchspace, honed through years of experience in finance leadership roles at prominent B2B technology firms. His journey began with Deloitte London, where he trained as a Chartered Accountant, laying the foundation for his stellar career trajectory.
Over the past 15 years, Chris has played pivotal roles in driving growth and shaping strategic direction at fast-scaling B2B-focused technology companies, including Factory 42, Avado, and Digital Science. This diverse professional background has afforded him a deep understanding of the intricacies of financial management within dynamic tech ecosystems.
Chris's unique blend of financial acumen and strategic insight positions him as an invaluable addition to the Branchspace team as Finance Director. His proven ability to navigate complex financial landscapes and drive sustainable growth aligns seamlessly with Branchspace's mission to revolutionize the B2B tech sector. With Chris at the helm of financial strategy, Branchspace is poised for continued success and innovation in the evolving tech landscape."
These appointments coincide with Branchspace's surge in demand for Triplake, its flagship product, and a burgeoning need for consulting services in digital transformation. The team has expanded by 60% year-over-year, growing to 80 team members in just over a year.
Andrew Webster, the Director of Airline Offer & Order Consulting, added, "Having spent many years in the airline industry, I am excited to bring my experience to Branchspace. Our Consulting team are uniquely placed to work with our airline partners in their journey towards Modern Airline Retailing and help them remove the constraints of legacy artefacts, systems & processes. I'm passionate about continuing to drive this essential transformation."
Chris Barnfield, the newly appointed Finance Director, echoed Webster's sentiments, stating, "I’m delighted to join the Branchspace team and help build on their impressive growth journey. The recent investment highlights the tremendous potential of the company, and I hope to bring my experience to driving continued success."
As Branchspace accelerates its growth trajectory and pushes the boundaries of innovation within the travel technology sector, the company reaffirms its unwavering commitment to increasing its footprint among airlines seeking to enhance their digital capabilities.
As the industry evolves, Branchspace remains at the forefront, poised to revolutionize the way airlines engage with their customers and navigate the digital landscape. With a relentless pursuit of excellence and a passion for innovation, Branchspace continues to redefine the future of travel technology, setting new benchmarks for success in the industry.
About Branchspace
Branchspace is a leading digital software provider and consultancy, working with airlines and other travel companies to enhance and transform their digital retailing capabilities. Founded in 2013, ~~~~ it allows clients to create and manage personalised, data-driven digital commerce experiences to increase direct distribution and customer retention and take greater ownership of the end-to-end customer journey.
Branchspace accelerates commercial opportunities for its airline customers by advancing the development and deployment of the modular Triplake dynamic retailing platform, delivering the best possible end to end experience for travellers and driving revenue, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility as well as speed to market. Products include a web portal, member portal, mobile apps, shopping, servicing, ancillary marketplace and day of travel solutions.
The company also provides consulting services across the airline commercial systems environment including solutions architecture in the domains of offer/order management, revenue management and payment, digital touchpoint reviews and UX/UI design.
The company is an active strategic partner for digital innovation and modern retailing of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on its journey to unlock value creation and shape the future of the industry. Branchspace has also been engaging as a technology partner for the seamless travel PoC to enable seamless and contactless travel across the globe.
Branchspace is headquartered in London, with further offices in Krakow and Lisbon. Existing customers include Aegean Airlines, Air France/KLM, Air Malta, Air Mauritius, British Airways, Lufthansa Group, Oman Air, TAP Air Portugal, Finnair, and Turkish Airlines.
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.
