12 Airline Trend Predictions for 2016: Which Are Most Likely to Succeed?
Photo Credit: The TopSeries family of in-flight systems (IFS) bring innovation right to the passenger's seat, through integrated entertainment and communication solutions and connectivity with personal electronic devices. Thales
Skift Take
Whether you look at these 2016 predictions from the perspective of a consumer or the perspective of an airline, they are beneficial aims. They are also tall orders. We don’t think airlines can accomplish all of these goals in 2016, but they should make progress. Or they had better get busy starting.
In-flight retailing and technology firms GuestLogix and OpenJaw have each released their respective predictions of top trends in air travel technology for 2016.
But which of them are really ready to fly and which need more time in the hangar before they can take off?
OpenJaw’s Six for 2016
1. New Distribution Capability Will Remove Barriers and Create Travel Retailing Opportunities
NDC will help airlines boost the sale of ancillaries, and by facilitating personalization it can make the bookings process far more attractive. But while IATA is pushing for NDC adoption, it won’t remove all barriers by December. Its success relies on a number of organizational, systems, marketing, and merchandising improvements that even airlines say will take more time.
IATA reported in December that 10 airlines had deployed components of the NDC standard “on a small scale” and 20 more airlines had “plans to go live in the next one to two years.” It also reported that 15 of the top 2
