Innovation

✈ The global commercial charter market is valued over €100 billion annually. Airlines have underestimated charter flights, which offer fully prepaid flights with no marketing costs, despite demand from group travel, corporate incentives, and major events. Inefficiencies in the charter sector persist due to reliance on manual workflows, with transactions often needing hundreds of emails. Without digital tools and structured data, airlines lack insight into demand, missing out on strategic opportunities to integrate charters into their operations. The cargo industry's digital transformation contrasts with the outdated practices in passenger charter flights. Modern digital tools exist for airlines to improve fleet utilisation and yield through charter flights.

📱 Partnering with Coury Hospitality, IRIS, a mobile F&B and guest experience platform specialist, will expand its mobile ordering services across the hospitality management firm's properties worldwide. This follows a 44% increase in in-room dining sales year-on-year. Currently, the service is live in 12 hotels managed by Coury Hospitality. The adoption of the IRIS platform has improved order volume, revenue, and guest satisfaction by streamlining the ordering process and enhancing visibility of menu items.

🛄 A survey by Outpayce from Amadeus involving 4,500 travellers across five markets indicates that over 70% prioritize strong payment security when choosing a travel company. A majority (67%) would not accept a 5% discount to compromise on cybersecurity, and on average, a 38% discount is needed to consider a company with poor cyber safety. Half of the respondents have experienced payment fraud, with Brazil reporting a 90% victim rate, while the UK and France are at 38% and 37%, respectively. About 64% believe payment fraud is on the rise, with 46% of all payments fraud targeting the airline industry. Two-thirds of consumers have had a travel company wrongly decline their purchase. Moreover, 63% hesitate to store payment details with travel companies due to fraud concerns, and stronger security measures like tokenization and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) are being adopted, despite some friction in the purchase process.

✈️ RwandAir, in collaboration with HBX Group and Onlinetravel, has launched RwandAir Holidays, an integrated all-in-one travel booking platform on their website. Customers can now plan and book a complete trip, including flights, hotel stays, airport transfers, in-destination experiences, seat selection, baggage addition, and travel insurance in a single process. HBX Group recently assisted Turkish Airlines with a similar service. RwandAir's new platform aims to provide seamless travel experiences and unlock new revenue streams.

✈️ Air France-KLM partnered with Accenture to move digital applications to the cloud, moving away from three proprietary data centers. This multi-year agreement includes a co-led initiative with a common operating model and governance process. A cloud migration factory with predefined processes has deployed 350 applications successfully, accelerating time-to-market. The collaboration aims to build resilience, enhance agility, and improve operations, leveraging cloud and AI for digital transformation and competitive advantage in air travel.

🏠 Bob W has signed a long-term lease to transform a 4,500 sq m office building in central Athens into 130 serviced apartments, growing their portfolio to over 5,000 units in the UK and EU. The Stadiou Street location, their third in Athens, is close to major landmarks and will undergo a sustainable conversion to open this winter, enhancing energy efficiency and using 100% renewable electricity. The deal follows the launch of LEGIT, a new tool for accurate hotel carbon tracking.

📚 Marketing strategies evolve from outbound, high-volume tactics to value-focused approaches in the AI era. Podcasts and YouTube gain emphasis for creating lasting trust, while mastering AI for content remixing enhances value. Paid media incrementality becomes crucial for video and creator-led campaigns. Smart data and AI enable personalized outbound efforts, including BlandAI's AI-powered billboards for instant interaction. AI-driven personal touches in chat and email result in a quadruple increase in responses and email conversion growth of 50-200%.

📱 In the quest to capture consumer attention, businesses confront the challenge of "predictably unpredictable" behavior. Consumers multitask across devices, prompting businesses to craft content that resonates personally. AI technology is pivotal in enabling the rapid and sophisticated customization needed for effective engagement.