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AI agents still drive a sliver of travel bookings, which makes waiting look prudent. The commercial terms those agents run on are being written this year, and the sellers who sit it out will be priced by someone else’s integration.
Jet fuel prices doubled in 2026, and the question for every airline is who captures the margin that remains. Increasingly, the answer sits with counterparties: manufacturers, unions, premium travelers, airports and the banks behind co-brand cards.
A war has turned the Gulf's growth story into an open question. Few leaders have settled how trajectory and traveler trust hold under sustained conflict. Skift Global Forum East puts the people making that call in one room in Abu Dhabi.
The transatlantic corridor remains one of travel’s most important markets — and also one of the most exposed to global disruption.
Travel's commerce layers are merging into one system, and control of that system will set margins for the next decade. We're bringing the operators making those calls together at Skift Commerce Summit this November.
A government minister, an EU regulator, a member of the European Parliament, and the airline and destination chiefs who move the corridor rarely share a stage. On October 15 in Dublin, they do, and so can you.
At IAG, AI proves its value in one airline before the Group expands it. Governance goes in from day one. Ben Dias says that’s what gives the Group confidence to scale across markets and brands.
A pilot can demonstrate that AI performs a task. Putting it into a travel business requires someone to own the results, handle the exceptions and show that it is worth the cost.
Strawberry's tech chief sees AI models commoditizing and the edge moving to clean, connected data. In Europe, she wants regulators judging rules by whether they work as much as by how well they are documented.
Travel AI has to work across languages, brands, booking systems and regulatory boundaries. Europe brings those challenges together—and gives the companies solving them a chance to shape how travel gets sold.
Industrializing AI across European markets is the hard part at Accor. Its AI chief bets on autonomous agents anyway, though he warns they meet far more friction in the enterprise.
With these stories, we aim to pull back the camouflage that Big Tech uses to obscure their connection with oppressive governments, and to highlight cases of technological authoritarianism — and resistance — around the world.
A year ago, we asked what Skift would look like if we started it today. This is the answer: Skift Intelligence, and a company rebuilt around the decisions travel’s leaders have to make.
Travel measures success by what happens after money gets allocated: arrivals, bookings, room nights, load factors, traveler spending. We’ve built a framework around every decision that leads to those outcomes, counting the roughly 5,000 people with authority over the money, assets, and capacity that shape where the industry goes next.
The industry pours its attention into search and booking. Steve Singh thinks the money is in what happens after. Spotnana's AI now handles cancellations and refunds, and he believes servicing costs can fall by half. He makes the case at Skift Global Forum.
Heather Balsley is making IHG legible to the AI models while arguing the models will never own the guest. Two bets, one strategy, at Skift Global Forum.
