At WiT Phocuswright Middle East, aviation leaders debated the next 10 years of travel distribution, payments, and digital transformation, and the balance between ambition and realism.
At a time when every industry panel seems to default to AI, it was refreshing to hear leaders in aviation and tech push back, gently, but firmly, against the hype. “Let’s not get carried away,” was the prevailing sentiment from the stage at the aviation session moderated by Filip Filipov, COO of OAG.
Steven Greenway, CEO of flyadeal, perhaps said it best: “There’s always a lot of noise –blockchain was going to create world peace 10 years ago.” Now, he said, “it’s AI” but the reality for an airline like his, operating in Saudi Arabia with both digital natives and 70-year-old pilgrims, is starkly different.
“We’re not going to carry that many Saudis on our new A330s,” he said, referring to the widebody aircraft coming in 2027. “We’re targeting inbound labour and religious traffic. And that means we still have to embrace paper-based travel agencies alongside digital.”
That duality – digital ambition versus analog reality – framed much of the conversation.
From fragmentation to unification: The tech provider view
Madhavan Kasthuri, Head of Global Solution Engineering, Sabre Travel Network, EMEA, highlighted the company’s shift from processing bookings to guiding sellers with smart insights. He spoke about Sabre’s investments in NDC, now with 35+ connections, including a massive push on LCCs, and a move toward unified platforms. “Sabre is no longer just the home for EDIFACT,” he said. “We’re becoming the home for EDIFACT, NDC, and LCCs alike.”
Still, he acknowledged, “NDC is an evolution, not a revolution.” Even as Sabre builds toward “offer-order” models that bundle all travel components into one seamless transaction, the reality is, not much has been “turned on” yet. Filipov’s gentle challenge: “Will we still be talking about this a year from now?”
Turkish tech: Building its own future
Serdar Gürbüz, General Manager, Turkish Technology, shared how the airline group spun off its tech division to create scalable, modular platforms that serve both Turkish Airlines and others. “It’s like AWS,” Filipov noted, “built for themselves, and now turned into a product.”
Gürbüz echoed the offer-order shift as a way to simplify the legacy PNR and EMD systems and offer passengers a more connected journey, from tickets to transfers to insurance.
The goal? Launch Turkish Airlines’ first true offer-order product by 2026, starting with the domestic market.
From left: Filip Filipov, Chief Operating Officer, OAG. Madhavan Kasthuri Head of Global Solution Engineering, EMEA, Sabre. Serdar Gürbüz, General Manager, Turkish Technology. Chiara Quaia, Senior Vice President, Travel Industries, Mastercard. Steven Greenway, CEO flyadeal
Payments: From backbone to experience driver
Chiara Quaia, Senior Vice President, Travel Industries, Mastercard reminded the audience that payments are no longer just infrastructure, they’re experience enablers. “This region has 600 million digital wallet users. That’s massive,” she said. She sees three big shifts coming:
- Tokenized, invisible payments as the new norm.
- Mainstream adoption of virtual cards.
- Real-time cross-border settlement for improved cash flow.
And AI? “It’ll be your co-pilot,” she said, not just for fraud detection but to assess sustainability before you spend.
So, will AI really transform aviation?
Filipov closed by asking each panellist what industry consensus they disagreed with. The winner: “AI will change everything in the next five years.”
“I don’t think so,” said Greenway. “Sure, it’s the next industrial revolution, but too many 18-year-olds are selling tools they don’t understand.” Kasthuri agreed: “AI will help with the grunt work, freeing teams to focus on innovation. But it won’t kill travel agents, it’ll make them smarter.” Gürbüz added, “AI won’t change the act of flying people from one place to another but it will change how we plan and personalize that journey.”
The takeaway? Tech will transform the plumbing of travel – distribution, payment, personalization – but not overnight, and not for everyone, everywhere, all at once.
