Corporate Blog

By 2026, US airlines alone will need to recruit 480,000 new technicians and 350,000 pilots just to keep pace with demand [1]. Worldwide, the industry will be short of 80,000 pilots by 2023 [2]. Already, labor shortages are grounding flights [3]. And disruption due to unfilled jobs is forecast to last for at least another decade [4]. As the sector works hard to make up for lost ground over the last few years, amid happily rising passenger demand, it must find a way to overcome these labor shortages.  The perk that other sectors can't match In the struggle to attract talented staff to the s...

This has been a good year for commercial aviation. Finally, after three years I'm sure we're all very glad to put behind us, demand is up, passenger numbers are properly recovering — reaching 95.6% of their pre-COVID levels by September 2023 [1] — and the industry is forecast to go back into profit [2]. What's not to love? Nothing, of course. This is all great news. And yet. As IATA noted in its forecast for 2023, our sector's total profits are expected to be US$4.7 billion, on revenues of almost US$1 trillion [2]. If the sector is to thrive in a market increasingly marked by shaky consumer co...

In the race to remain competitive, airlines are investing in different facets of the customer experience. Regarding IT investments, airlines spent an estimated USD 37 billion in 2022 alone, with the pandemic serving as an urgent reminder to pick up the pace in digital transformation initiatives. To compete in the digital economy, decision-makers face the challenge of pinpointing priority investment areas in line with consumer expectations. From personalization to new revenue streams from integrated partner sales, several key investment areas are in the spotlight to boost airline revenues while...

In my last blog post, I discussed the intricacies of managing and reporting onboard sales and suggested three critical features cruise lines should look for when searching for a new POS system. Here, I'll be looking at cruise line dining systems, how they impact how "traditional dining" products are managed, and the knock-on effect on the customer experience. A key challenge in managing dining products and experiences is that the underlying workflows can vary greatly from cruise line to cruise line, ship to ship, and even restaurant to restaurant on the same ship. Cruise lines offer different ...

There are at least 1,000 airlines operating in the world today [1]. And they're in a race, even the ones that don't know it yet. Airline spending on digital transformation is growing by 27% a year and is expected to reach over US$35 billion by 2030 [2]. From a relatively slow start, carriers will rush to digitize everything from order management, through distribution, to customer service, retail offering and more. The question is not will this or that carrier digitally transform their operations. It's will they do it fast enough, will they get enough right from the outset to enjoy first-mover ...