If you speak to most airline CIOs right now, there is a common theme.
It feels different.
For years, the conversation was about future transformation. NDC pilots. Offer and Order roadmaps. AI innovation labs. Sustainability slide decks.
Now, it is operational.
In just the past month, we have seen renewed momentum around airline retail transformation programmes, further AI deployments moving from proof of concept into live operational environments, and increased cybersecurity investment following a series of aviation sector alerts around critical infrastructure resilience. The message from the market is clear. This is not experimentation anymore. This is execution.
For airline technology leaders, that shift marks a genuine inflection point.
From roadmap to reality
The industry has been discussing modern airline retailing for the better part of a decade. NDC was positioned as the disruption. Then Offers and Orders became the strategic north star. Now, more airlines are publicly confirming timelines for decommissioning legacy PSS components and accelerating Order Management implementations.
The narrative has changed.
It is no longer about whether Offers and Orders will happen. It is about sequencing, risk mitigation, and internal capability.
Boris Padovan
Recent announcements across Europe and the Middle East show airlines investing in modular retail platforms that sit alongside legacy cores rather than attempting overnight replacement. That is a pragmatic shift. Boards want transformation, but they also want stability.
For CIOs and Heads of Commercial, this creates a dual operating model. You are running PNR-based legacy flows while building order-based retail capability. You are optimising filed fares while testing dynamic offer construction. You are servicing tickets while designing order servicing logic.
The technical challenge is significant.
The talent challenge is even bigger.
At Thornton Gregory, we are seeing increased demand for professionals who can operate in both worlds. Business Analysts who understand legacy PSS architecture but can also map Order-based workflows. Revenue specialists who understand ATPCO filing but are comfortable with dynamic pricing engines. Architects who can translate commercial ambition into stable integration layers.
The inflection point is not just technological. It is human.
AI moves into operations
AI has been part of aviation conversation for years, but the past 30 days have shown something different.
Airlines are not just talking about AI-driven disruption management. They are embedding machine learning into crew optimisation, predictive maintenance scheduling, and irregular operations recovery.
There have been fresh partnerships announced between airlines and AI platform providers aimed at reducing turnaround times and improving operational resilience. In parallel, commercial teams are expanding AI usage in personalised offer construction and real-time ancillary pricing.
This matters for IT leaders because AI increases both output and complexity.
More data. More automation. More integration points.
As one recent industry panel highlighted, AI does not remove the need for judgement. It amplifies the consequences of poor architecture.
The CIO’s role becomes one of orchestration. Ensuring data governance is strong enough. Ensuring cybersecurity frameworks evolve. Ensuring that AI outputs feed into systems that can actually execute decisions.
For Heads of Revenue and Commercial Directors, AI changes competitive dynamics. If one airline can price and reprice dynamically at scale while another is constrained by batch processes, the gap widens quickly.
Again, this comes back to capability.
The market is now prioritising leaders who can bridge technical delivery and commercial understanding. Technical skills get programmes live. Judgement, clarity and influence keep them aligned.
Cybersecurity is no longer background noise
Over the last month, industry regulators have reiterated warnings around aviation cybersecurity exposure, particularly as digital retailing and cloud migration accelerate.
Airlines are becoming increasingly interconnected ecosystems. Retail APIs, payment gateways, loyalty integrations, airport systems, ground handling platforms.
Every new integration expands the attack surface.
This is where the inflection point becomes uncomfortable. Legacy aviation infrastructure was not designed for modern threat landscapes. Yet ripping and replacing everything is unrealistic.
So CIOs are making targeted investments. Zero trust frameworks. Identity and access management upgrades. Real-time threat monitoring. More robust third-party risk governance.
We are seeing a marked increase in demand for cybersecurity leaders with aviation-specific experience. Not generic enterprise security. Aviation.
Because the operational risk profile is different. The regulatory scrutiny is different. The reputational impact is different.
This is not optional spend anymore. It is board-level.
Commercial strategy is now technology strategy
One of the biggest shifts at this inflection point is organisational.
Commercial strategy and IT strategy can no longer operate in parallel lanes.
If your retail ambition is to move toward dynamic bundles, continuous pricing and full order lifecycle management, your technology stack must support it. If your technology stack cannot support it, your commercial ambition is theoretical.
Recent airline earnings calls have made it clear that ancillary revenue growth and digital channel performance remain central to profitability strategies in 2026. That places technology squarely at the heart of revenue generation, not just cost control.
Heads of Commercial are now asking deeper technical questions. Latency. API scalability. Servicing automation rates. Data ownership.
And CIOs are being pulled into revenue conversations earlier.
This alignment is healthy. But it requires a different calibre of leadership. Individuals who can speak both languages fluently.
The hiring implications
Inflection points expose capability gaps.
Across the airline technology market, we are seeing sharper competition for:
- Order Management architects
- NDC and API integration specialists
- AI product leads within operations
- Cybersecurity professionals with aviation exposure
- Revenue technologists who understand dynamic retail
Speed is becoming a competitive advantage in hiring. The strongest candidates are not active for long. And the best ones are looking for clarity. Clear transformation roadmap. Clear executive sponsorship. Clear decision-making authority.
There is also a noticeable shift in candidate expectations. Leaders want influence. They want to shape architecture, not simply maintain it. They want to work in organisations where commercial and IT alignment is real, not aspirational.
From our position working exclusively within airline and airline technology recruitment, the difference between successful transformation and stalled programmes often comes down to whether the right bridging talent was secured early enough.
You cannot outsource strategic capability indefinitely.
This is the build phase
The aviation industry has always been cyclical. But this moment feels structural.
AI is operational. Offer and Order transformation is accelerating. Cybersecurity scrutiny is intensifying. Retail ambition is rising.
The airlines that will lead over the next five years are not necessarily the ones with the most ambitious slide decks. They are the ones that can execute without destabilising core operations.
That requires technical depth, commercial understanding, and leadership maturity.
This is not a hype cycle. It is a build phase.
And build phases demand builders.
