From seats to sales: How ZIPAIR is rewriting airline retail
It began, as many bold travel stories do, at the worst possible time. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when skies were empty and demand had collapsed, a new airline quietly took off from Narita. Its first passenger flight carried just two people.
Most airlines would have been fighting for [...]
Agoda’s new Bangkok tech hub is the start of something much bigger
The online travel giant just moved 4,000 employees into a state-of-the-art new home. But the real story is what's happening inside the company, including a sweeping B2B transformation, an AI rethink, and a forecast on where Asia travel is heading next.
Spanning more than 26,000 square m [...]
Airbnb’s private car transfers. Digitising Macao tourism. HTS rebuilds Avion Rewards. Lumo’s flight disruption tools.
Macao, Alibaba, and Sands China to drive tourist spending through AI and digital mapping tools
Macao's Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Alibaba's navigation app Amap, and Sands China have signed a tripartite cooperation agreement to digitise the city's tourism ecosystem. The centerpiece is a "flyi [...]
Capital A signals growth and diversified future amid oil volatility
Speaking at a press conference held at The Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur, Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes balanced the news of increased travel costs with the appointment of a new Deputy CEO and, with this being the final stage of its solidification, a rundown of Capital A’s portfolio.
The aviation vet [...]
When the sky tilts: How the Middle East is rewriting aviation’s flight paths
There are moments in aviation when the map doesn’t just shift – it tilts.
Routes that once felt permanent suddenly look provisional. Hubs that defined global connectivity can no longer be taken for granted. And airlines, accustomed to operating within finely tuned systems, find themselves navig [...]
South Africa’s $2.5b online travel market attracts new wave of homegrown tech
Is South Africa the world's quiet travel tech powerhouse?
South Africa's online travel market, valued at $2.54 billion in 2024, is on a trajectory toward nearly $6 billion by 2033. But the more interesting story isn't the size of the prize, but who's showing up to claim it. South Africa has quietl [...]
BTS brings bookings. F1 travel trends. No-phone tiger reserves. MakeMyTrip’s AI concierge.
Lobby raises $2.2m to automate group bookings with AI
Swiss startup Lobby has secured USD 2.2 million from venture capital firm Founderful, whose co-founder Pascal Mathis, also a GetYourGuide co-founder, will join the board, to scale its AI platform for processing group travel bookings. The platfor [...]
Fliggy launches open-source travel skill and adds AI bookings
Chinese online travel platform Fliggy, an Alibaba Group subsidiary, has made two moves in quick succession: opening up its travel inventory to AI agent developers via a new open-source skill, and enabling actual travel bookings through an AI interface for the first time.
Fliggy, the travel divisio [...]
From Autobahn dreams to AI travel: Saad Saeed’s bet on escaping travel’s startup graveyard
Growing up in Pakistan, Saad Saeed dreamt of fast cars and soccer, and it was those two things that brought him to Berlin to study.
Germany’s Autobahn fascinated him. “It’s crazy,” he says. “Out of all the countries, the one with no speed limit has to be Germany – with all the rules.� [...]
Co-sourcing cuts agent turnover. MakeMyTrip eyes India IPO. Japan’s new pre-screening. Sakura trends.
Specialized co-sourcing cuts travel agent turnover by 95%, says 24/7 TPD
Colombia-based 24/7 Travel Partner Desk (247 TPD), a co-sourcing firm operating exclusively in the travel sector, reports that its specialized model reduces agent turnover by 95.3% compared to the industry average, a finding d [...]
