Travel Industry CEO Interviews

As CEO Gareth Williams says, the Ctrip deal means that nothing and everything changes for Skyscanner. The focus of the business and the growth plans will remain in place but getting a wealthy new owner from the world's fastest-growing travel market will bring a multitude of new opportunities.

In its short history, Skift has talked about the balance of power in travel heading East, whether it is the influence of Chinese travelers, the rise of Ctrip and Alibaba, or the emergence of the Gulf carriers with their luxury long-haul flights. Ctrip's acquisition of Skyscanner is one of those moments that mattered in 2016 and Ctrip's global ambitions are a manifestation of what we have been talking about.

Ctrip didn't acquire the largest metasearch engine in Skyscanner but one that is very strong in Europe. Ctrip will now turn Skyscanner into a flight-booking site and will also focus Ctrip on growing domestically, in greater China and Southeast Asia first.

Willie Walsh is not afraid to make decisions that anger employee unions and disappoint some passengers. That may seem like poor strategy, but it's a big part of the reason that International Airlines Group is in better shape than most of Europe's other airlines. Sometimes, an executive must make unpopular decisions to ensure the long-term success of a business.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts' approach to the luxury market is a little bit different from its peers, and our conversation with president and CEO J. Allen Smith gives you a bit of a glimpse into that approach.

Our storytelling ambitions at Skift are growing bigger, and this year we've leaned into these big editorial projects in a big way. The key animating function for us is understanding the big picture around travel that you otherwise won't read in other travel or mainstream media. Expect deeper reporting from us over the coming year as well.

You have to give Frantz Yvelin some credit for thinking big, but the idea that an all-business class airline could work outside of a few of the largest financial centers in the world seems far-fetched. And even routes like London to New York aren't sure winners, as La Compagnie showed recently when it suspended flights.

Many U.S. airlines and their employee unions are concerned about Norwegian's rapid growth — and for good reason. With its low cost, long-haul model, Norwegian is a threat to legacy airlines.

When David Neeleman was pushed out of JetBlue Airways, the carrier he founded, in 2007, it wasn't clear he would have a next act. But Neeleman, who now controls two airlines, is doing just fine.

That didn't take too long now, did it? In all seriousness, however, this mega-merger was certainly a long one in the making, filled with plenty of twists and turns. Now, we hope, comes the even more interesting part in the next chapter of the story.