After a year of interviews with airline CMOs, CDOs, and digital leaders in partnership with 815Labs, we wanted to switch gears and dig into a very specific subject that sits high on many airline agendas and that many of you asked us to explore in more detail.

For this episode, I traveled to Budapest to sit down with David Minorics, Business Development Director at Mito Performance. Through Mito’s airline-focused branch 815Labs, David has worked on numerous airline digital marketing and SEO projects and is now leading GEO pilots and initiatives for airlines and other travel brands.

In this episode, we talk about:

• What Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is and how it differs from traditional SEO

• Why GEO is about being recommended by AI, not just being found

• How AI-powered search synthesizes information and what query fan-out means in practice

• The key elements of the GEO playbook for airlines

• How airlines can benchmark GEO visibility and sentiment

• What GEO metrics and KPIs actually matter

• How airline marketing teams can start GEO pilot projects

• Early learnings from GEO pilots, including projects with airlines

This episode is a practical, no-hype conversation about how AI-powered search is changing airline visibility, marketing, and digital strategy. David shares hands-on insights that make this a must-listen for airline marketers, digital teams, and anyone responsible for airline distribution and brand presence.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and key takeaways from this episode: https://diggintravel.com/airline-generative-engine-optimization/

For this episode, we traveled to Lisbon during the World Aviation Festival to meet with Jason Ward, Vice President of Marketing and People at Azul Airlines.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Jason’s journey across Morris Air, Southwest, JetBlue, TAP Portugal, and Azul shaped his people-first leadership style

• Why empathy and culture are the foundations of brand loyalty

• The OPA (Observe, Perceive, Attend) model and how it drives great service at Azul

• How technology and AI can enhance, not replace, the human touch

• Azul’s community-driven purpose and a breakdown of their special “O Céu do Brasil é Azul” (“The Sky of Brazil is Blue”) campaign

• Why curiosity and learning are still the most important skills for the future of airline leadership

This episode offers a refreshing perspective on leadership, culture, and airline customer experience from one of the industry’s most experienced voices.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-jason-ward-azul-airlines/

In this series, we speak with top airline digital and ecommerce leaders to uncover how they drive growth, optimize digital performance, and build smarter strategies for the future.

For this episode, we traveled to Lisbon during the World Aviation Festival to meet with Juliana Ramirez, Chief Digital Officer at Flair Airlines.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Building a “team of builders” and creating a culture of ownership

• Balancing startup agility with corporate focus

• The Flair FWD initiative and using digital products to rebuild customer trust

• How guarantees like On-Time, Checked Bag, Travel Flex, and Disruption remove friction and build brand trust

• The value of direct customer feedback through Flair’s Feedback Forums

• Why curiosity and learning are the key skills for digital professionals in the age of AI

This episode is packed with insights on leadership, digital transformation, and culture for airline digital, product, and marketing professionals who want to learn how to move fast while building trust.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-juliana-ramirez-flair-airlines/

In this series, we speak with top airline digital and ecommerce leaders to uncover how they drive growth, optimize digital performance, and build smarter strategies for the future.

For this episode, we traveled to Lisbon to meet with Sara Walter de Freitas, Head of Digital & eCommerce at TAP Air Portugal.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Sara’s unique journey—from a marketing intern at TAP to leading its digital transformation

• The 3-year transformation model: Assess – Fix – Accelerate

• Why cultural change is harder (and more important) than tech upgrades

• How consistency, trust, and resilience shape better airline digital experiences

• The role of experimentation, data, and collaboration in driving smarter decisions

This episode is full of actionable insights for airline digital, UX, product, and ecommerce professionals navigating complex transformation and customer experience challenges.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode: https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-interview-series-tap-air-portugal/

In this series, we speak with top airline digital and ecommerce leaders to uncover how they drive growth, optimize digital performance, and build smarter strategies for the future.

For this episode, we traveled to Istanbul to meet with Sevilay Gökduman, Group Head of Digital Channel Management & e-Commerce at Pegasus Airlines.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Sevilay’s 16-year journey from revenue management to leading digital team at Pegasus

• How Pegasus is using gamification and loyalty to boost mobile app engagement

• Why the BolBol program is at the heart of their digital strategy

• Personalization and the challenges of building a smarter booking flow

• The role of testing, CRO, and agile teams in Pegasus’ digital growth

This episode is full of practical insights for airline digital, UX, loyalty, and ecommerce professionals looking to create better user experiences and long-term engagement.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-pegasus-digital-loyalty/

In this series, we speak with top airline digital and ecommerce leaders to uncover how they drive growth, optimize digital performance, and build smarter strategies for the future.

We’re starting strong with Ismael Monzón, Head of Digital Growth at Air Europa—a longtime friend of the Diggintravel Podcast and one of our earliest collaborators.

In this episode, recorded live in Palma de Mallorca, we talk about:

• How Air Europa’s digital growth team evolved post-COVID

• Optimizing landing pages and value propositions for 30+ markets

• Personalization, CDPs, and a test-and-learn approach to AI

• Balancing day-to-day execution with long-term strategic thinking

• Lessons from Ismael’s journey from CRO expert to digital leader

This episode is full of insights for airline digital, marketing, data, and ecommerce professionals looking to grow both their results and their leadership skills.

RESOURCES: Full article with highlights and takeaways from this episode:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-leaders-air-europa-digita-growth/

In this series, we’re speaking with top airline and travel UX leaders to uncover the secrets behind building exceptional digital experiences.

This time, we explore airline digital platforms, product teams, and the build vs. buy dilemma with insights from Remus Moraru, an ecommerce leader who spent seven years building digital products, UX teams, and airline ecommerce at Wizz Air.

This episode covers:

• The balancing act of airline ecommerce – why airlines must align UX, ticket sales, and ancillaries without creating friction.
• Building strong, autonomous product teams – lessons from Wizz Air on structuring digital teams for speed and agility.
• What it takes to develop great airline digital products – key insights from projects like Fare Finder and Wizzride.
• The build vs. buy dilemma – when airlines should invest in custom platforms and when buying off-the-shelf solutions makes more sense.

This episode is packed with valuable takeaways for airline UX, digital retailing, and product strategy leaders looking to build better digital experiences and platforms.

RESOURCES: You can find the full article with key insights, quotes, and takeaways from this episode here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-ux-series-digital-products-ux-teams/

In this series, we’re speaking with top airline and travel UX leaders to uncover the secrets behind building exceptional digital experiences.

This time, we dive into the world of digital analytics and data-driven UX with Kamran Emre Sayin, Digital Analytics and MarTech Leader at Turkish Airlines Technology. His team recently implemented a sophisticated analytics framework that helps measure and optimize user experience across Turkish Airlines’ digital platforms.

Kamran shares insights on:

• Tracking 400+ event-level dimensions to improve the booking journey
• Ensuring clean, reliable data for better decision-making
• Moving toward server-side tracking and qualitative analytics to uncover deeper insights
• The impact of AI on analytics and the challenges of a cookieless future

This episode is packed with actionable takeaways for airline digital and UX leaders looking to leverage analytics for better user experiences and business results.

You can find the full article with key insights, quotes, and takeaways from this episode here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-data-driven-ux-turkish-airlines/

In this series, we’re speaking with top airline and travel UX leaders to uncover the secrets behind building exceptional digital experiences.

This episode is a special one, recorded on the road in Belgrade with Srdjan Prokić, Head of E-Commerce at Air Serbia. Srdjan shares his journey of building Air Serbia’s mobile app from scratch and offers practical insights into mobile-first design, collaborating with UX agencies, and using user feedback to tackle complex airline challenges.

From simplifying payment flows to innovative features like the histogram for flexible pricing, Srdjan provides real-world examples of how Air Serbia creates seamless mobile experiences.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-ux-series-mobile-first-design/

In this series we're speaking with top airline and travel UX leaders to uncover what it takes to build outstanding digital experiences.

This time, our guest is Martyn Reding—former Head of Digital Experience for an airline at Virgin Atlantic and now Director of User Experience Design at Expedia. He also developed his own platform where he is mentoring designers and managers from the global UX community.

So, Martyn really is one of the best people from our industry to talk about digital experience and UX design.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-ux-design-teams-in-travel/

Together with our new podcast partner, 815Labs—experts in building top-tier airline UX—we’ve structured a series of episodes that bring together insights from leaders across various perspectives to understand what it takes to create exceptional airline UX.

In this second episode Carlos Lima Santana, Senior Product Designer shared his unique views, and broad understanding in what goes into designing great airline digital experience.

Carlos talked about the basic principles of UX design, why you need to cover the basic first, the balance between doing the most obvious things and innovating new, about the most important trait for a great UX designer, testing and many more.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-ux-what-sets-top-designers-apart/

Our goal is to bring various great UX leaders to share their perspectives on different UX topics, so by the end of the series, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of how to create outstanding airline digital experiences.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/key-ux-concepts-for-airline-success/

In this talk, Ricard explained how LATAM Airlines built a unique ecosystem to succeed and move faster in the digital world.

Ricard's talk goes beyond the usual digital transformation buzzwords and narratives, delving into concrete concepts and examples--as you'll see some are quite unconventional--to illustrate how LATAM is actively re-shaping its digital culture.

This was one of the most enlightening talks on our podcast, so we highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding how airline digital transformation unfolds.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-culture-latam-airlines/

Discover how flyadeal is building a modern digital commerce tech stack and leveraging technology to carve out a competitive edge. Key podcast highlights:

• Flyadeal's unique organizational model
• How flyadeal is running consolidated, end-to-end digital marketing campaigns utilizing CDP
• How to do airline personalization on three levels
• Flyadeal's approach to AI-driven personalization and conversational commerce on WhatsApp

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/modern-airline-digital-commerce-stack-flyadeal/

You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

Today, we bring you another insightful case study: the Lufthansa Group and their Digital Hangar’s journey from web and CRO analytics to airline product analytics.

Laura J. Hornbake, Product Analytics Community of Practice Lead at Lufthansa Group Digital Hangar, talked about their shift towards a decentralized model and the establishment of a digital analytics community of practice, highlighting how some of the most innovative airlines are revolutionizing the use of analytics to build better products more efficiently and on a larger scale.

And naturally, our discussion wouldn’t be complete without delving into personalization and AI.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/lufthansas-group-evolution-to-airline-product-analytics/ You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

This episode is all about how to find and land your ideal airline digital job.

As we step into 2024, the digital landscape keeps evolving, and AI is reshaping our world daily. Understanding the skills to acquire, what to learn, and where to focus for your airline digital career has never been more challenging.

That's why we sought insights from Arpad Szakal, a seasoned recruiter and executive talent consultant with extensive global airline experience. In our latest podcast chat, Arpad shares practical advice to help you seize opportunities in the airline digital marketing world.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-career-2024-guide/ You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

With constant changes and mounting pressure on airlines to stay on top, we've decided to help you navigate these shifts with a special two-part podcast series.

Today, in Part II, join us and founder and editor of Martech Weekly Juan Mendoza as we explore the state of digital analytics and how analytics and measuring measuring marketing effectiveness will change in the future.

And why we need to get back to basics and find alternative approach to when it comes to measuring how you airline digital marketing campaigns perform and which channels and initiative really generate incremental growth and bookings.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with examples, screenshots, key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-marketing-digital-analytics-marketing-effectiveness// You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

With constant changes and mounting pressure on airlines to stay on top, we've decided to help you navigate these shifts with a special two-part podcast series.

Today, in Part I, join us and founder and editor of Martech Weekly Juan Mendoza as we explore the state of marketing technology, discussing emerging roles and the critical need for new, emerging marketing skills.

Then, in Part II, we dive deeper into the future of digital analytics, covering everything from the cookie-less world to AI's impact on marketing.

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/changes-in-airline-marketing-part-and-challenges-in-martech/ You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

RESOURCES:

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/the-latest-airline-ai-news-airline-marketing/ You can find how airline marketers can build relevant, timely, trustworthy customer experiences on autopilot with AI here:

https://useinsider.com/sirius-ai-generative-ai-solution-for-customer-experience/

Ravi's journey has been a captivating one, especially his recent transition to CMO at CARSOME. Our conversation delves into the lessons he's learned, including what he'd do differently if he were to work for an airline again.

I believe many of you will find his insights, especially regarding his global branding campaign with football legend Eric Cantona and the challenges of measuring its impact, particularly enlightening.

And, for those curious about the intersection of AI and marketing, we dive into discussions about ChatGPT and other related topics towards the end.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Ravi here:

https://diggintravel.com/key-pillars-of-modern-airline-digital-marketing/

In this episode - talk with Joonas Leppävuori, Digital Product Manager at Finnair - we discussed in detail how Jonas and his team are doing booking funnel optimization. Joonas explained how they optimized all key pages of their booking flow (flight results page, passenger info page, seat selection page).

If you are an airline digital pro working on increasing the conversion of your website or APP you'll like this episode.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Joonas here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-booking-funnel-optimization-finnair/

There's tons of articles and podcast about ChatGPT, we felt there is a need to do a top-down, structured overview of ChatGPT and why it matters for airline and travel digital professionals.

Our guest, Bostjan Kozuh has finished several data science trainings at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and is a mentor for many companies on AI strategy. Bostjan was also analytics instructor in Diggintravel Airline Digital Academy.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Bostjan here:

https://diggintravel.com/chatgpt-for-airlines/

 And yes, of course we talk about ChatGPT and possible impact for airlines again as well.

Mike Robinson has worked in various business and technology (biztech) roles, integrating data science and technology into teams focused on revenue growth or innovation.

Mike’s most recent experience was at Amazon, working on the Prime Team and CRM, as well as at Lyft, a rideshare company. Prior to that, he worked in the airline industry for a long time, at Amadeus Team in Nice and Frontier Airlines in Denver.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Mike here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-dynamic-pricing/

In Part I. we talked about experimentation, this second part is about data science and how airlines can integrate data science in large organization.

Andres shared his experience from LATAM airlines and his past learning from BigTech companies and work at Uber.

And yes, of course we had to talk about ChatGPT as well.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Andres here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-data-science-latam-airlines/

Dario interviewed Iztok about the 2023 Yearbook and research, what were the main insights and learning from the 55 airlines Iztok surveyed. They also talked about evolution of Diggintravel research and more importantly evolution of airline ecommerce and digital optimization over the last couple of years, so from 2017 when we started with our first research.

I hope you'll enjoy this episode, we definatelly did enjoy being on the other side of the microphone. Also don't worry, we'll have new airline expert guests very soon.

2023 Airline Digital Optimization Yearbook is the result of the most comprehensive annual airline digital research and benchmarks in existence. It's more than 100 pages of content and benchmarks from 55 surveyed airlines.

You can learn more (and download your PDF copy) about the Yearbook here:

https://diggintravel.com/2023-airline-digital-optimization-yearbook/

Andres shared insights how LATAM Airlines is planning to do experiments for better decision making in the physical world: in revenue management, call center and other areas.

Andres shared so many great insights during our chat so we split the podcast in two parts. In part two we'll talk about data science and ChatGPT.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Andres here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-scientific-decision-making-latam/

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Ismael here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-optimization-and-cro-team-air-europa/

Eveline started her airline career 10 years ago when she joined Asian low-cost airline Scoot as one of the first team members in their digital team.

Since then, Scoot’s digital team has evolved and matured immensely, and I’m glad Eveline was willing to talk about the learnings from their journey.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Eveline here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-talks-eveline-lee-scoot/

We talked to Ursula about challenges airlines face with digital transformation and about how to build modern airline digital experience and platforms.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Urusla here:

https://diggintravel.com/how-to-build-a-modern-airline-digital-experience/

We talked about her experience of building digital teams, both large and small, we talked about how to define meaningful metrics and OKRs for digital products and tons of other things.

If you want to learn more about airline or travel digital, you’ll love this one.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Mariana here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-product-teams/

A new podcast chat with a special guest coming soon!

Today's podcast guest, Tino Klaehne, Director of Strategic Innovation and Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, explained what he and his team are doing (spoiler alert: a lot of cool, agile and unconventional stuff) to predict what will happen in the future.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Tino here:

https://diggintravel.com/predicting-the-future-of-travel/

Matt shared his insights on how airlines can grow and evolve their digital optimization programs. Other topics we talked about:

• Digital analytics, testing, and optimization tools
• Should you do optimization and personalization within the same team?
• Leveraging first- and third-party data for your optimization activities

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Matt here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-optimization-maturity/

We were thrilled to speak with Jake because Frontier Airlines is a digital commerce powerhouse. In its June 2022 quarter, Frontier reported a record $74.96 in ancillary revenue per passenger. Jake shared how Froniter ecommerce team is organized, how they build great digital products like Discount Den, and other things that drive Frontier's ancillary revenue success.

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Jake here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-ancillary-revenue-leaders-frontier-airlines-case/

• why digital and innovation are enablers for Wizz Air's rapid growth
• why they are building cross-functional product teams
• why Wizz Air is not doing digital for the sake of digital

You can find the full article with key key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat with Michaela here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-innovation-and-transformation-wizz-air-case/

• ideation - how to get ideas for innovative digital products
• research and testing - how they do it and how COVID changed this process
• optimization and testing - why and how is Southwest Airlines digital team doing testing at large scale
• going beyond the website and app - how do they optimize other digital channels like in-flight entertainment portal
• growing their digital team - what kind of roles and profiles are they looking for at Southwest Airlines

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/innovative-airline-digital-products-southwest-airlines-case

The trio talked about all kinds of airline digital, ecommerce, and onboard retailing concepts:

• The importance of product development, testing and innovation
• The importance of making the passenger's journey as unique as possible
• The importance of negative space
• The importance of focusing on the cabin experience and cabin crew
• The importance of cabin crew digitialization
• The importance of collaboration

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from this chat here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-cabin-talks/

Lee’s impressive airline career includes roles in Cabin Crew Development and Performance and Development Management at Air New Zealand at its head office in Auckland, Head of Customer Service at JetStar in Tokyo, Director of Ancillary Revenue at Viva Aerobus in Mexico City, and Director of Customer Experience and Ancillary Revenue for LEVEL in London. Lee is currently the “Future of Check-In” Program Manager at Auckland Airport. His extensive mix of operational roles – including working with cabin crew – and business roles provided the right mix for a lively, fascinating conversation.

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Lee and Henry here:

https://diggintravel.com/insights-for-ancillary-revenue-and-airline-onboard-retailing/

In the first episode we talked to Emilio Chacon Monsant. Emilio’s background is in ancillary products, digital commerce, and the digital experience at four airlines, including two network carriers – Aeromexico and Avianca – and two low-cost airlines, Vueling and Ryanair. Emilo is currently VP, Airline Relationships & Ancillary Revenue at Global Onboard Partners.

Travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt joined us as a special co-host for the new podcast series, to provide his unique perspective on airline retailing.

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Emilo and Henry here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-cabin-successful-onboard-retailing/

Joe shared many valuable lessons learned by Air New Zealand's airline digital analytics team. He explained how they started from scratch with their digital analytics team, and talked about how the team grew and how they are now working and providing insights throughout the whole airline customer journey.

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Joe here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-analytics-evolution-air-new-zealand/

If you want to increase conversion rate, if you want to improve your digital experience - there is one thing you really need to do. You need to understand your customers, their struggles, and their key digital pain points.

Greg explained how you can understand the WHY - why your customers behave in a certain way and how to use this knowledge to increase the conversion rates on your website or digital app.

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Greg here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-experience-analytics/

Check out the full podcast interview if you’re interested in:

• How to make faster and better decisions
• 3 places to start your testing and experimentation program
• Different organizational models you can use to set up your airline experimentation program
• What kind of experimentation tools to use
• How to be innovative with A/B testing and experimentation

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Ben here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-experimentation-talks/

Liliana García Magaña, who works on Business Intelligence and Analytics at a Mexican low-cost airline VivaAerobus, explained in detail how they implemented new advanced digital analytics, how they designed new analytics framework, and how they deal with the challenge of omnichannel tracking. Liliana and her team built a robust web analytics model which now allows them to measure every user interaction across different channels.

You can find the full article with the key concepts, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Liliana here:

https://diggintravel.com/how-to-implement-advanced-airline-digital-analytics/

Even more, Alberto shared his framework that connects Design Thinking, Strategic Foresight, and Growth Marketing among other things. Listen to my chat with Alberto to learn about all these things and check the article on the link below for the full visual model of the Framework.

You can find the full article with the Framework, quotes, and other notes from our talk with Alberto here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-innovation-talks-iberia/

• Why and how Norwegian is building an internal data team
• What kind of data roles are they looking for
• How is the team organized
• What are the use cases and opportunities

You can find the full article with quotes and other notes from our talk with Ivan here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-data-talks-norwegian/

Listen to this episode and learn from Remus Moraru, a digital expert from Wizz Air. Remus talked about data, analytics, experimentation, mobile apps, and how Wizz Air and its digital team are adapting to COVID challenges.

You can find the full article with quotes and other notes from our talk with Remus here:

https://diggintravel.com/airline-digital-talks-wizz-air/

Emre talked about customer retention and how to do retention marketing in travel. Especially in airline industry where we suffer from low differentiation, commoditization and low frequency is the hardest part of marketing.

Emre provided many other insights on content marketing, digital product and learnings from running his own personal newsletter about growth marketing.

You can find the full article with quotes and other notes from our talk with Emre here:

https://bit.ly/3w9GpRO

Henry talked about the research commissioned by the Accelya Air Transformation Lab and conducted by Atmosphere Research is called “Airlines: A path back to profitability”. The research is a great analysis of the latest airline retailing and other industry trends.

What can you learn from this podcast:

• the latest travel industry recovery outlook
• how will new 'changed' traveler look like
• how are airlines adapting to the pandemic, especially on the digital and retailing front
• how airlines are transforming into leaner, more agile airlines, and what does this mean for the airline digital pros

 You can find the link to the website article with data and figures from the research here: https://bit.ly/3n9p7Rb

I talked to Diego Brunot, UX Lead at American Airlines. Diego and his team work on what is now a crucial part of the airline travel journey, the post-booking digital experience.

Listen to the new episode of the Diggintravel Podcast about how to understand new traveler behavior in the post-COVID recovery period to build new digital solutions.

LINK TO THE ARTICLE WITH OTHER LINKS:

https://bit.ly/3fuNXsT

We talked about how travel digital giants like Booking.com use experimentation to build great travel digital products.

What can you learn from this podcast:

- How Booking.com is organized and how they changed as they scaled up experimentation

- What kind of experiments you should run and in what cases

- How to integrate experimentation and user research

- What kind of metrics to use

- What are the specifics of building travel digital products

See more about this interview along with examples and visuals here:

https://diggintravel.com/travel-digital-products-booking-com-case/

Robotics and robotic process automation were one of the digital trends I identified when I was doing research for our 2021 Airline Digital Trends report. AirAsia recently talked about robotic process automation, and Turkish Airlines is doing it. To learn more about it I talked to Ravinder Ravi Singh. Ravi was the Chief Information and Innovation Officer working for an airline, and he built airline robots with his team. I think Ravi's ideas on how to improve airport passenger experience with new digital touchpoints are really relevant for airline digital marketers. We also talked about innovation and how to do it in a time of crisis like the one airlines are facing now.

LINK TO WEBSITE ARTICLE WITH ADDITIONAL INFO:

https://bit.ly/3uaRK3C

Our guest Mauricio Prieto is a travel visionary and an expert in travel distribution and travel. Mauricio was one of the co-founders of eDreams, one of the biggest OTAs in Europe. 

Here are some other things you can learn about in this episode:

• 2021 travel industry outlook
• Why the pandemic made travel products more complex
• What I see as the 3 key elements of a successful travel digital business
• Mauricio's 4th additional ingredient that is crucial for scaling up your digital retailing
• How airlines can innovate in the current environment
• The future of work and education and how they impact travel

LINK TO WEBSITE ARTICLE WITH ADDITIONAL INFO:

https://bit.ly/2LNAY9k

• Barbara Zimmer, Manager of E-Distribution at Qatar Airways
• Mwajuma Salim, Head of Digital Commerce and Customer Experience at Kenya Airways
• Leda Koleilat, Senior Ecommerce Assistant at Qatar Airways
• Stanislava Yordanova, Senior Product Marketing Manager at PROS

Here is the full article "5 Positive Airline Digital Trends I Want to See Continue in 2021", with our chat summary and notes:

https://bit.ly/37ZRlb2

What else you can learn from this podcast:

• How Finnair digital transformation was disrupted by the pandemic and how they adapted
• What was his one key learning about digital
• Why Finnair built in-house digital teams and digital platform
• How Finnair agile customer-centric digital product development process works

BONUS: Please check the article on the link below to find out what are 4 dangerous animals to look for in your organization, that are threats to your digital projects. ARTICLE LINK: https://bit.ly/33SgVMR

• How eDreams adapted their digital and research activities during the COVID pandemic
• What mistake Rui was doing at Ryanair that he learned the most from
• How to do UX research at scale - eDreams is one of Spain's largest product design teams
• Other great UX and research tips

Here is also a link to the article with more info and other great digital and UX resources:

https://bit.ly/3ne3YE6

• why airline digital & marketing should react to faster planning cycles
• how will new consumer behavior affect the digital experience
• what are the opportunities for airlines because of the new customer behavior
• what are the digital skills of the future

We also talked about the upcoming launch of the Diggintravel Airline Digital Academy and how it can help airlines prepare for the current challenges and new opportunities.

Link to Airline Digital Retailing Academy >> https://bit.ly/2EjWqPz

We talked about how to do that with Amanda Stockwell. She is a user research expert and one of the most popular instructors on LinkedIn Learning. She consults both Fortune 100 companies and start-ups on how to leverage user research to build better digital products. Amanda is also an instructor for Module 4 in our Airline Digital Academy.

In this episode of the Diggintravel Podcast, Amanda will explain:

• Why the change in user behavior and new COVID-19 context make user research more important than ever
• What kind of UX research method to chose for your digital projects
• How to do remote UX research
• How to integrate UX research into agile development teams and sprints

Link to the article with more info and great visual with an overview of different kinds of UX research methods:

https://bit.ly/3haHJvu

Link to the Airline Digital Academy:

https://diggintravel.com/academy/

If you want to learn how to implement modern, agile analytics and how to adopt a data-driven culture across the whole organization then you need to listen to this talk with Ido.

BONUS: If you'll listen to the end you'll see that Ido challenged me to a duel. What kind of duel? Listen to the full episode and you'll see.

One more thing! Don't forget to check the website article after you finish the podcast!

The article has a 5-step action plan based on Ido's recommendations on how to build a great data & analytics program.

Here is the link to the article:

https://bit.ly/2QMS3z9 

The key to building modern airline digital products is to combine experimentation with an agile, data-driven, customer-centric approach.

Vanesa shared great examples of how they do that in practice in a large LATAM organization that has more than 23 sites and 40 digital product teams.

One more thing! Don't forget to check the website article after you finish the podcast!

The article has a list of 5 key principles and links to all resources mentioned in our talk with Vanesa. Here is the link to the article:

https://bit.ly/2FYe2kB

Link to the Airline Digital Academy:

www.diggintravel.com/academy?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes

She explained how the Etihad innovation team not only tries to build digital solutions to address COVID-19 challenges but also changes the travel digital experience for the better in the long run.

We also talked about how Etihad cooperates with start-ups and how they foster innovation in a large airline organization environment.

Learn more about the 3 Etihad digital innovations we talked about in the podcast here (including links and pictures):

https://bit.ly/32Xjr4J

We talked about all of this in our recent podcast with Gavin Harris, a travel industry expert and Commercial Director at Skyscanner.

But there’s more!

You know we always want to be as hands-on and practical as possible at Diggintravel. So, you can see Skyscanner’s latest demand data in action and find examples of real agile travel analytics dashboards in this article:

https://diggintravel.com/agile-travel-analytics-external-demand-data/

This is a quote you probably heard many times, right?

I talked about how to figure that out with Ravi Shankar, Global Head of Digital Marketing and Analytics at AirAsia who is one of the brightest minds in airline digital space.

We talked about AirAsia digital marketing, how they measure it, how they organize their team, what they insource, how they use data, how they chose which digital channels they will be on….   Ravi also talked about the transformation journey AirAsia is on – from selling flights only to becoming an OTA, a tech company and how this will change the way his digital marketing team will work in the future.

You can find the link to the full article with a lot of additional resources here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-digital-marketing-air-asia-case/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=show_notes

Because in this episode we summed up the key learnings from our 2020 Airline Digital Research and Survey, where we surveyed 49 airlines on how they do digital product development, digital marketing and digital optimization.

But there is more; on top of the 5 key learnings from our research you can also hear best quotes from the top digital experts we interviewed during our research. Top quotes are from leaders from Airbnb, Google, CDOs of Wizz Air and EL AL Israel Airlines, best-selling book author from Harvard and more.

NOTE: You can get the full 2020 Airline Digital Yearbook, a 92 page PDF with more than 50 charts, benchmarks and real-life examples here:

https://bit.ly/3fakYqO

You can find the link to the full Q&A article with Henry here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-industry-trends-2020-2021/

Ronny has worked in the fields of data mining and machine learning for more than 25 years. He is an authority in the area of experimentation and co-author of the book Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments: A Practical Guide to A/B Testing.

Before he joined Airbnb, Ronny grew the experimentation platform (ExP) team at Microsoft to over 110 data scientists, developers, and program managers to accelerate innovation at Microsoft through trustworthy analysis and experimentation.

But Ronny is not just an experimentation expert! In the past, he was Director of Data Mining and Personalization at Amazon, so he also has tons of experience in the area of personalization.

Listen to the full Diggintravel Podcast interview with Ronny to learn more about:

• What is the role of online experiments in the current crisis?
• Why do you need a trustworthy environment for testing?
• How can you define the right metrics (OEC – overall evaluation criteria)?
• OEC and other great examples from Amazon and Microsoft
• How are experimentation, personalization and machine learning connected?

You can find the link to the full interview article with Ronny here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-personalization-and-experimentation-program/

Will consolidation happen? Will airlines become travel platforms? Will players like Google and Amazon take over? Check out the second part of our talk with Nina to hear more about these scenarios.

Listen to the full interview with Nina to learn more about:

• Where is the value in airline retailing?
• What are the key challenges of airline distribution and retailing?
• The 3 components of airline retailing (NDC, One Order, Dynamic Offers)
• The 4 key enablers of airline retailing
• Future airline distribution and retailing scenarios
• The most important elements of successful innovation programs

You can find the link to the full interview article with the link for McKinsey report here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/3-future-scenarios-for-airline-distribution/

But, how can you build a future-proof technology stack that will be up to the task to change or when the next "big change wave" hits us, just like the current one did?

To get you some answers, I talked with a person who knows a thing or two about how to build modern, future-proof technology and digital platforms. Miha Kralj worked for IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and is now at Accenture.

We talked about key technology and digital trends that will impact us in the near future (2020-20205):

- Key tech trends

- How to start big digital transformation projects

- 4 key pillars of future-proof technology setup (architecture, process, tooling, execution platform)

- Transition from DevOps to BizOps and server-less

- Who is responsible for digital transformation (CIO, CTO, CDO, CFO or CEO)

- Why airlines are playing catch-up with big travel digital platforms

- The technology that will have biggest impact in the future 

You can find the link to the full interview article with notes and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/future-proof-airline-technology-2020-2025/

He is a Harvard Business School Professor and author of the book Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments. Stefan is an authority on the management of innovation and has studied the best companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Booking.com, and Netflix, among others.

What you will learn about business experimentation from this interview?

• Real examples from Booking.com, Microsoft, Apple, JCPenney, and the retail world
• Why is business experimentation much more than just digital optimization and A/B testing?
• How to organize for experimentation: 3 organizational models based on your size and maturity
• Why is generating hypotheses crucial for your experimentation?
• Experimentation platforms: build your own or use a third party tool?
• Testing big vs. small incremental changes
• 2 types of experiments: cause-effect experiments (optimization) and exploration discovery experiments
• How can airlines experiment in the offline, non-digital environment?

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-innovation-business-experimentation/

What can you learn from this interview:

• The conversion optimization process - where and how to start?
• Why is getting early wins crucial to your success?
• How to deal with your boss who doesn't understand the experimentation process and A/B testing
• Why personalization, conversion optimization, and experimentation go hand-in-hand
• How CRO helps you calculate the ROI of your personalization program
• How to scale up your experimentation
• Why "test to learn, not test to win" is the way to long-term conversion optimization process success
• How improv helps Shiva with experimentation and understanding users better

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/conversion-optimization-process/

What else you will learn from this interview:

• Joel’s background and how he ended up in the airline industry.
• Why Wizz Air looks at digital transformation differently – learn about their pragmatic, ULCC approach to airline digital transformation?
• How to scale up – how they run a digital program and initiatives to support their fast-paced growth and large scale?
• Where do they see the biggest opportunities in data and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning?
• Why experimentation and a “fail fast – fail small” approach is the key to their digital success?
• Other interesting points that will make you look at the 2020 airline digital trends differently.

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/2020-airline-digital-trends/

What else you will learn from this interview:

• What are the two big digital trends EL AL sees which were the key to their airline digital strategy?
• Why EL AL joined Digital, IT and Data into one big unit to support their execution?
• What are the key challenges of doing e-commerce and digital marketing in a legacy airline environment?
• Why changing the mindset from “project” to “product” view is a must if you want to develop digital solutions?
• Can cooperation with the startup community help you be more agile and digital?
• How data and agile BI fit into their airline digital strategy and help EL AL make faster decisions?
• Listen to examples of some of EL AL’s new digital products that help solve their customers’ problems.
• Why food Instagrammability might be even more important than its taste to the digital generation?

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-digital-strategy-from-vision-to-execution/

What you will hear in this interview:

- How design sprints and user testing labs work?

- What makes companies successful at conversion optimization?

- Why just looking at data and analytics is not enough? Why qualitative research really matters?

- What is Anna's personal favourite UX research method?

- How to do CRO & UX design on mobile?

- What is different when doing design and CRO for mobile?

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and all links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-mobile-ux-design

What you will hear in this interview:

- Iztok's intro on about how Diggintravel's digital retailing benchmarks and Lufthansa Innovation Hub research are connected.

- How Lennart started with research and why he changed his football career for learning and research?

- What kind of digital projects they do at Lufthansa Innovation Hub?

- What is behind their mission of "create and capture value beyond flying"?

- What kind of digital products they build?

- Why is Lufthansa Innovation Hub analyzing airline digital maturity and how can one measure digital innovation in the first place?

- How did they analyze airline digital maturity with their Airline Digital Index (ADiX)?

- What was the biggest surprise when they evaluated airlines?

- What can airlines and other travel companies learn from startups?

You can find the link to the full interview article with transcripts and links here:

https://www.diggintravel.com/airline-digital-benchmarks-by-lufthansa-innovation-hub/

I'll also share one secret with you - how podcasts helped me grow my business and how this podcast could help you to get new ideas and find solutions to your problems.

If you'll listen carefully you can also learn about my dog, an interesting statistic about Slovenia and what are my hobbies :)