Cyber Times International Journal of Technology & Management

Travel not only has recovered but also is exceeding pre-pandemic levels: In 2024, airline gross bookings reached 115 percent of their 2019 total. At the same time, evolving consumer expectations and behaviours are reshaping how people plan, book, and experience their journeys. Together, these shifts are fuelling a rapid transformation of the travel sector. The airline industry is attempting to meet these expectations through, in part, improving its approach to retailing. What the airline industry refers to as “retailing” primarily encompasses selling (of, for instance, tickets, upgrades, and ancillary offerings) and servicing (of, for instance, refund requests and other traveller needs) across all customer channels, including both airline-controlled websites and apps and third-party online travel agencies (OTAs).[11] Many carriers remain constrained in their retail efforts by siloed structures, legacy technology platforms, and concerns that up-front investments in retailing may not yield immediate or sufficient returns. While some airlines have taken meaningful steps toward modernizing their retailing, there remain untapped opportunities to boost both customer value and commercial potential. To better understand how traveller expectations about retailing are shifting—and to identify instances in which conventional industry wisdom may be outdated— a global survey of 7,000 travellers was conducted by McKinsey, from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The survey’s findings highlight and debunk eight common myths that continue to shape airline retail strategies, while offering insight into what travellersactually want across the full retail journey from inspiration to post-travel engagement.