Branchspace is deeply committed to sustainability in aviation and is always enthusiastic about sharing valuable insights. Ahead of the UK’S official #NetZeroWeek we wanted to share some great reads to learn more about the aviation's industry efforts to achieve its NetZero goal. Here are our top five picks:
1. Airlines and Startups to Decarbonize Aviation
This article zooms in on airlines taking radical approaches to their sustainability plans, betting on new technologies and hardware solutions. It explores how various startups and established airlines are pioneering efforts to reduce carbon emissions through innovative methods. This is a must-read for those interested in cutting-edge advancements and the ambitious steps being taken to decarbonize aviation.
2. IATA's 2024 Comparative Review of Leading Net-Zero Transition Roadmaps
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) presents a comprehensive review of fourteen leading net-zero transition roadmaps for the aviation sector. This report provides a detailed comparison of different strategies and their effectiveness in driving the industry towards net-zero emissions. It is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the diverse approaches and benchmarks in aviation sustainability.
3. Sustainability in the Air's New Report: Beyond Greenwashing
"Sustainability in the Air" delves into the concept of "greenwashing" and how to move beyond it. This report offers critical insights into genuine sustainable practices versus superficial claims. It is an invaluable resource for understanding how to implement authentic and impactful sustainability initiatives in the aviation sector.
4. Mabrian's White Paper on Sustainable Travel and Overtourism
Travel data firm Mabrian presents a white paper outlining seven steps for creating a roadmap to move destinations away from overtourism. This document addresses the delicate balance between promoting tourism and preserving the environment. It offers practical guidelines for developing sustainable travel practices that benefit both destinations and travelers.
5. Sustainable Aviation Futures' SAFMENA Industry Report
Earlier this year, Sustainable Aviation Futures engaged with over 50 aviation and energy industry professionals across the MENA region. This report summarizes their insights into five key opportunities for achieving aviation decarbonization. It provides a regional perspective on sustainability challenges and potential solutions, making it a vital read for stakeholders in the MENA aviation industry.
Conclusion
At Branchspace, we believe that staying informed about the latest developments in aviation sustainability is crucial for driving meaningful change. These selected readings offer a wealth of knowledge and innovative ideas that can inspire and guide efforts towards a greener future in aviation. Whether you are an industry professional, a sustainability advocate, or simply interested in the future of aviation, these resources are sure to provide valuable insights and foster a deeper understanding of the path to sustainable aviation.
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.
