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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has issued a strong appeal to the aviation sector, urging it to convert advancements in digital airline retailing, payment systems, and digital identity into concrete advantages for travelers and enhanced financial stability for airlines.

This directive was delivered on October 28th by Sandrine Le Borgne, who holds the positions of IATA's acting Director General, Chief Financial Officer, and Senior Vice President for Corporate Services. She made this statement during the opening of the association's World Financial Symposium and World Passenger Symposium, which took place in Macau, according to IATA.

Le Borgne highlighted the current technological landscape, noting that modern travelers can utilize AI to plan trips, employ digital wallets for payment, and use biometrics to expedite movement through airports. However, she stressed that the current focus must shift to realizing the full potential value of these innovations.

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She characterized 2026 as a period marked by substantial instability within the aviation industry. This volatility stems from conflicts causing airspace restrictions and route disruptions, a doubling of jet fuel prices year-over-year, and incomplete recovery of aerospace supply chains.

Despite airlines transporting over five billion passengers annually, projections indicate that in 2026, they might only generate US$4.5 per passenger, resulting in a net profit margin of roughly 2%. Le Borgne cautioned that even minor increases in expenses or drops in demand could easily transform profitability into losses.

The integration of artificial intelligence assistants and automated agents is fundamentally altering how consumers search for and compare flight options. IATA recognizes that these shifts present both opportunities and inherent risks for carriers.

Airlines are required to adapt to these evolving conditions while simultaneously ensuring they retain complete oversight of their data, commercial partnerships, and the caliber of information supplied to clients.

Переход к современной розничной торговле

IATA deems the migration toward Modern Airline Retailing, structured around the Offers and Orders framework, as crucial for successfully navigating the shifting market dynamics. Currently, seven airlines are either utilizing or implementing Orders systems, with expectations that over twenty other carriers will adopt them starting in 2027. Technology firms have committed over US$1.7 billion to developing the necessary Offers and Orders functionalities.

Le Borgne asserted that "Offers and Orders are the foundation, and AI is the accelerator." Furthermore, IATA underscored the necessity of incorporating financial planning into the digital transformation process from its very inception.

Given that airlines spend upwards of US$24.5 billion each year on payment processing, new payment solutions, while offering customers more choices, also impact operational expenditures, cash flow management, and financial risk exposure. As airlines move towards Offers and Orders, processes such as revenue accounting, settlement, and reconciliation must be integrated from the start.

IATA suggests that the primary goal should be the elimination of superfluous complexity rather than merely digitizing processes that already exist.

Цифровая идентификация и стандартизация

Biometric identification is becoming a more frequent element of air travel. Nevertheless, many existing biometric systems are confined to operation at single airports or within specific national borders, thereby restricting their wider applicability. IATA proposes a comprehensive, industry-wide remedy known as the One ID concept, which allows passengers to verify their identity just once and subsequently be recognized throughout their entire journey.

Sandrine Le Borgne announced that Hong Kong International Airport and Air New Zealand were among the initial entities to achieve One ID certification. Standards for secure digital passports are already established, with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) having created specifications for digital travel credentials.

IATA reports that more than eight out of ten passengers would prefer to use a digital passport when checking in for flights. Le Borgne clarified that while digital passports hold transformative potential for international travel, this transformation hinges on governments being ready to issue and accept them, as airlines lack the authority to issue passports.

Перспективы в Азии

The two IATA symposiums marked a first for the organization, being hosted in North Asia. IATA pointed out that Chinese airlines transported a record 770 million passengers in 2025, indicating that China's aviation market still possesses significant room for expansion. Le Borgne commented that "China's leadership is not defined by scale alone. The country is also at the forefront of digital innovation."

She concluded by calling upon the entire aviation industry to uphold and continuously develop consistent global standards as technological progress continues.

The Cape Town to Johannesburg route became the busiest air connection in Africa in 2025, transporting 3.4 million passengers. This figure significantly exceeded the number of passengers on the New York–Los Angeles route in the United States.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) report 'Global Air Transport Statistics for 2025,' which analyzes differences in passenger flow between major domestic air routes worldwide, this superiority of the African direction was established.

The busiest route in South Africa connects two key economic and tourism centers of the country. Nevertheless, it remains smaller in scale than leading global domestic air routes, especially in Asia, where passenger flows are substantially higher.

Leaders of Global Air Transport

In 2025, the busiest airport connection globally was the Jeju–Seoul Gimpo line from South Korea, which accommodated 13.3 million passengers. All ten most popular airport pairs worldwide were domestic routes: nine of them were located in the Asia-Pacific region, and the remaining connection linked Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

As noted in the report, 'The Asia-Pacific region dominated the ranking of the world's busiest airport pairs, with the route between Jeju International Airport and Seoul Gimpo International Airport (CJU-GMP) remaining the most popular globally, with 13.3 million passengers traveling between these two airports.'

In Latin America, the busiest route was between Bogota and Medellin in Colombia, serving 3.5 million passengers. The busiest connection in Europe was between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca in Spain, recording 2.1 million passengers.

United States Remains the Largest Passenger Transport Market

The report also ranked countries based on the total number of passengers. The United States maintained its status as the world's largest passenger transport market, registering 890.1 million arriving and departing passengers in 2025. This represents a growth of 1.6% compared to the previous year.

However, despite its status, the US showed the slowest growth rate among the ten largest markets in the world, showing an increase of only 1.6% year-on-year compared to 2024. China took second place as the largest passenger transport market with 776.1 million passengers in 2025, an increase of 4.8% relative to 2024.

China ranked second with 776.1 million passengers, increasing by 4.8% compared to 2024. The UK ranked third with 269.7 million passengers, showing a growth of 3.4%, and Spain recorded 252.7 million passengers, corresponding to an increase of 5%.