The reimagined FTE Ancillary & Retailing event takes place in Dublin on 23-25 May 2023, co-located with FTE EMEA, and promises to be the world’s definitive revenue focused air transport show. With a focus on how the worlds of commercial, digital and customer experience can converge more effectively under the event theme of “Tomorrow’s Customer”, the inspirational agenda has been curated with industry guru Eric Leopold, Founder & Managing Director, Threedot and Content Director, FTE Ancillary & Retailing. In this interview, he shares his perspective on the evolution of airline retailing, identifies key industry trends, and explains how the FTE Ancillary & Retailing agenda will help address those trends.
View the FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing schedule at a glance >>
Prior to establishing Threedot, Leopold spent 15 years at IATA where he focused on strategy and transformation, leading efforts on important initiatives such as NDC and Simplifying the Business. His is, therefore, a unique perspective on airline retailing, which he says has completed the stage of connectivity and entered the stage of differentiated content.
“Leading airlines, sellers and aggregators have all established API connectivity. We now see airline content appearing exclusively in the new channel,” Leopold explains. “There are a few examples that I would call key milestones, like Finnair’s announcement of its 2025 deadline for 100% retailing (sunsetting EDIFACT) or American’s announcement of removing 40% of fares from legacy channels (EDIFACT) just to name recent ones. At the same time, we see other airlines postponing their GDS surcharges, like Air France-KLM recently, which shows that every market and situation is different.”
“From search and distribution, to payment and delivery”
Optimising commercial performance has never been more important, and the rebranded FTE Ancillary & Retailing event will bring together executives representing every type of industry stakeholder globally to help establish creative new ways of collaborating, leveraging digital technology, and creating more revenues.
“FTE’s original focus was on ancillaries, which enable travellers to customise their experience and airlines to compete more profitably. The extended focus on retailing will cover all sides of offers and orders, from search and distribution, to payment and delivery,” says Leopold. “Search has a new spin with natural language tools such as ChatGPT. Distribution sees new players, like Spotnana in the corporate space, leveraging NDC to provide better offers to customers. Order management is the next frontier – merging reservations and tickets into orders – which will support seamless changes to bookings. And payment: both a rapidly growing cost to airlines and still a low conversion rate.”
FTE Ancillary & Retailing conference agenda highlights
The FTE Ancillary & Retailing conference agenda will deep dive on the needs of travellers going forward and how the sector should adapt and leverage technology to take commercial performance to the next level. It will feature insights from industry leaders, technology giants, disruptors, parallel industries, academia and startups, with a diverse range of keynotes, case studies and panel discussions.
“The agenda really tells a story, the journey to digital retailing, from a customer and airline perspective,” Leopold shares. “We’ve invited not only the innovators who showcase the benefits, but also players who remind us of the challenges to adoption and the needs for improvement.”
Among the confirmed conference highlights are:
- Keynotes including Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates; Klaus Goersch, CEO, NEOM Airlines; Manish Raniga, CEO of Airline Investments, 777 Partners (owner of Bonza); Russell Pert, Director, Head of Industry, Financial Services and Travel, Meta; and Tero Taskila, CEO, BEOND.
- A look at what tomorrow’s customer will expect from the travel retail eco-system, featuring Sammy Patel, Vice President Commercial, Vantage Airport Group; Martin Jones, CEO, CAVU; and Dr Peter Mohn, Owner & CEO, m1nd-set.
- Navigating the tech landscape and airlines’ journey to becoming fully-fledged digital retailers, featuring Aldric Chau, Head of Retail, eCommerce and Travel Partnerships, Cathay Pacific Airways; Georg Haraldsson, Chief Information Officer; PLAY Airlines; Chris Phillips, Vice President of Global Sales, ATPCO; and Sinead Finn, Founder, affinnity.
- The FTE EMEA Metaverse, NFT & Crypto Symposium, featuring Dr. Björn Becker, Head of Future Intercontinental Experience Program, Lufthansa; Bastian Schütz, Product & Business Development, Meta Reality Labs; Camillo Stark, Deputy Managing Director (AR/VR Labs), MSM.digital; Arturs Garais, Web3 Project Lead, airBaltic; and Rohit Talwar, CEO, Fast Future.
- Airline distribution and payment with NDC and beyond, featuring Stéphane Ormand, VP Distribution, Air France-KLM; Roland Jaggi, CCO, Aegean Airlines; Christian Hylander, VP Global Strategy, Travel & Entertainment Industry, Mastercard; James Lemon, Global Lead – Travel, Transport & Leisure, Stripe; Allen So, Head of Distribution Strategy, Cathay Pacific Airways; and Glenn Morgan, Partner, Threedot.
- Revenue Management and Offer Creation with AI, featuring Apple Ignacio, Director, Ancillaries, Cebu Pacific; Paul Carroll, Chief Revenue & Network Officer, AirAsia; Manuel Ambriz, CCO, Avianca; and Simon Pitt, CCO, PNG Air.
- Other key speakers including Kenny Jacobs, CEO, daa; Michael Cawley, Chairman, Hostelworld Group & Non Executive Director, Ryanair; Bobby Healy, Co-Founder, Strategy & Tech, Meili; and Fraser Brown, Retail Director, Heathrow.
View the FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing schedule at a glance >>
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain – two main technologies to watch
The technology that enabled airline retailing is APIs, which built the new pipelines. Looking ahead, Leopold identifies two main technologies to watch: “Artificial Intelligence, which enables to optimise offers in real time for each customer; and Blockchain, which enables to automate and secure the processing of orders.”
A key area that will be explored in the FTE Ancillary & Retailing conference agenda is how airlines can navigate the tech landscape on their journey to becoming fully-fledged digital retailers. “Most airlines just wait and see, focusing on applications rather than the underlying technologies,” Leopold comments. “Leading airlines pay attention to new technologies and their impact on the business. For example, how to engage next-gen customers who interact in the Metaverse, or how to make loyalty inter-operable using NFTs, or how to reduce payment costs using Crypto rails.”
He also emphasises the importance of NDC, which means “airlines can construct offers across all channels, direct or indirect, but also service these offers”.
On a personal level, Leopold is excited to be curating content for FTE Ancillary & Retailing and is looking forward to welcoming all industry stakeholders to the event. “My message is: join us for the best airline retailing event of the year, combining keynotes and expert panels. To airlines specifically: benchmark yourself and find solutions – and it is free to attend! To travel tech companies: network with many airlines and find business opportunities. To all: see you soon in Dublin!”
View the FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing schedule at a glance >>
