Imagine a world where boarding a plane feels as seamless as unlocking your phone – that's the thrilling vision of air travel we're striving for, yet the path is littered with hurdles that demand our urgent attention. Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to welcome you to the 2025 IATA World Financial Symposium and World Passenger Symposium. Being here in Istanbul fills me with joy, and I must extend my heartfelt thanks to our gracious host, Turkish Airlines, for their exceptional hospitality. Turkish Airlines stands out as a steadfast champion of IATA, right from the leadership level. We're truly fortunate to count Dr. Ahmet Bolat, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Turkish Airlines, as a dedicated long-term member of the IATA Board of Directors. Dr. Bolat and his dedicated team consistently make us feel right at home in this vibrant city. It's truly motivating to witness such a gathering of visionaries from the realms of finance, commercial operations, IT, customer service, and beyond. This combined gathering is one-of-a-kind. Typically, topics like retail strategies, passenger experiences, and financial stability are tackled in isolation, but in practice, they're deeply intertwined. After all, a frictionless journey for travelers relies on robust financial health, which in turn hinges on genuinely delivering value that passengers can feel and appreciate.
But here's where it gets controversial... What if airlines could tailor every aspect of travel to individual preferences – from bespoke offers and flexible payment methods to an entire itinerary orchestrated solely via a smartphone app? What if financial transactions throughout a passenger's voyage were flawlessly integrated by collaborative efforts from commercial, operational, and financial teams, with artificial intelligence providing instant data analysis and smart choices? What if we could ditch the outdated legacy systems from bygone eras, designed without modern retail in mind – those cumbersome manual fixes, tedious reconciliations, and wasteful inefficiencies – swapping them for sleek, interconnected digital workflows? These aren't just daydreams; they're the blueprint for a transformative future that challenges us to rethink what's possible.
Yet, the current landscape paints a different picture, filled with real-world challenges. The shift to smooth, tech-driven travel is in motion, but progress is patchy. Cutting-edge tools are available, yet putting them into practice isn't straightforward. Airline executives are grappling with a barrage of pressing, sometimes conflicting demands. Chief executives must steer through obstacles like supply chain bottlenecks, environmental sustainability goals, shifting customer wants, and evolving regulations. Chief financial officers, on the other hand, have to invest in fresh ideas while upholding fiscal responsibility, maximizing returns on past expenditures, and maneuvering through a volatile landscape influenced by trade barriers, rising costs, and international tensions. Chief revenue officers or chief commercial officers are laser-focused on revolutionizing every interaction point with customers – be it shopping, transactions, support, or rewards programs – all while contending with aging infrastructure and siloed information. Simultaneously, chief operating officers are tasked with upholding daily passenger satisfaction, prioritizing safety, dependability, and punctuality, while weaving in new digital tools to make journeys more fluid and foreseeable. Across all departments, a shared bottleneck persists: antiquated legacy systems. Think passenger name records (PNRs), paper-based paperwork, tangible boarding passes, and disjointed databases – these are the hidden roadblocks preventing us from achieving that idealized, frictionless reality we envision. That's precisely why we're convening at the World Passenger Symposium and World Financial Symposium: to tackle these obstacles collectively and envision a new era for aviation. Our travelers are already immersed in digital life elsewhere – from online shopping to social media – and they're spotting sparks of advancement in air travel, like biometric check-ins or electronic boarding passes. They're wondering aloud: 'Why doesn't air travel match this level of seamlessness everywhere?' We're evolving... and our customers are eager to witness that change unfold!
From these challenges to forward momentum – and the surprising insights from the GPS. Over the course of these two days at the World Financial Symposium and World Passenger Symposium, our mission is to bridge the divide between our current state and the elevated standards passengers rightfully demand. This morning, we'll unveil the 2025 IATA Global Passenger Survey, offering an unfiltered glimpse into what our customers truly think. It highlights our strides and underscores the distance still ahead. Digital evolution isn't merely technological; it's fundamentally human-centered – crafting procedures that align with real expectations. That's where IATA's collaborative spirit shines. By uniting efforts, we convert aspirations into tangible outcomes through universal guidelines, mutual structures, and strategic alliances that enable widespread advancement. And you've voiced your priorities loud and clear:
- Embracing Offers and Orders alongside contemporary financial tracking
- Revamping payment methods
- Rolling out comprehensive digital identification
So, what's the status update?
Three Key Pillars for Digital Evolution
First, solid groundwork is in place for transitioning to Offers and Orders paired with Modern Accounting. The initial suite of standards, encompassing the business reference model and early rollouts, has been finalized and endorsed by IATA alongside partners throughout the ecosystem. Moreover, IATA is facilitating this transition via the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP), so airlines dependent on BSP can fully partake in the next chapter of airline commerce. The upcoming phase involves scaling from experimental trials to widespread implementation, fueled by IATA's accessible standards. This promises to be aviation's most profound upheaval in generations, unlocking operational efficiency, commercial gains, and financial benefits industry-wide.
Second, we're capitalizing on opportunities to streamline payments and slash the colossal $22 billion annual burden they impose on airlines as a whole. Payments aren't just a behind-the-scenes chore; they're a critical strategic focus. Upgraded payment technologies can cut costs, broaden customer options, and liberate funds for creative pursuits and eco-friendly initiatives. Witness the rising triumph of IATA's offerings, such as the IATA Financial Gateway (IFG), IATA Pay, and Easy Pay. These sessions offer a chance to explore expanding with IATA Pay, virtual wallets, and biometric integrations – all built on shared standards we've developed jointly – to revolutionize payments for everyone's benefit.
Third, we'll explore accelerating the rollout of End-to-End Digital Identity. Frameworks are already established, including ICAO's Digital Travel Credential (DTC), Europe's eIDAS regulations, and IATA's One ID initiative. In practice, the IATA One ID program has been documenting and supporting triumphant real-world applications globally – scenarios where travelers leverage digital credentials and biometrics to navigate their trip sans physical paperwork. To empower airlines further, IATA has introduced the Contactless Travel Directory – a handy resource simplifying the process of locating and partnering with global biometric providers. Excitement is growing, yet we're still short of the widespread adoption needed to meet passenger desires for rapid, paperless journeys – not just at select spots, but universally. Thus, our discussions will center on expanding trial programs into a cohesive, worldwide network.
Teamwork and Visionary Guidance
And this leads to my closing thought: success hinges on unity. The assembled expertise here serves a vital purpose – through partnership, we materialize dreams. The hurdle before us is a fundamental overhaul of business models, requiring finance, innovation, and customer intelligence to function as one. With that, it's my privilege to officially kick off this year's combined symposium by passing the baton to our host – a trailblazer epitomizing creativity, determination, and linkages: the CEO of Turkish Airlines.
Thank you.
And this is the part most people miss – how do we truly balance innovation with financial stability in an unpredictable world? Do you believe legacy systems are more of a barrier than a bridge, or could they hold untapped value? Share your thoughts in the comments: Are we underestimating the role of AI in reshaping travel, or is human insight still king? What controversies do you see in prioritizing digital identity over traditional methods? Let's discuss – I want to hear your takes!
