The strategy always makes sense on paper
Spend five minutes in any airline boardroom, and the strategy is usually clear.
Modern retailing.
Offers and Orders.
NDC maturity.
Better use of data.
Improved customer experience.
None of this is controversial anymore. In fact, most airlines are aligned on what needs to happen.
But the reality is different.
Because while strategy is converging, execution is still fragmented.
And that gap, between what we say we’re building and what actually gets delivered, is where most programmes slow down.
The industry has been here before
If you look back at the early days of revenue management, the same pattern appears.
Airlines understood the value of data, forecasting, and optimisation. The vision was clear. But the challenge wasn’t the idea. It was understanding what was already in the systems, how it worked, and how to make it usable.
That hasn’t changed.
Today, the conversation has shifted to NDC, Offers and Orders, and modern retailing. But the underlying problem is the same.
We design clean, logical frameworks. Then we try to implement them into environments that are anything but.
Legacy systems.
Different interpretations of the same concept.
Teams using the same words but meaning different things.
It’s not a strategy problem. It’s a translation problem.
Hélène Millet
One of the biggest lessons from working across airline technology is that the challenge is rarely the idea. It’s the implementation. You can design something that looks perfect in theory, but once it reaches developers, operations, and commercial teams, everything changes. That’s where communication becomes critical. You need people who understand both the vision and the reality on the ground. And more importantly, people who are willing to listen, adapt, and refine. Because success in this industry is not about being right at the start. It’s about getting to the right outcome together.
NDC showed us the limits of theory
NDC is a perfect example.
The vision was compelling. Standardised communication. Richer content. More control for airlines.
But when it moved from theory to implementation, things got complicated.
Schemas were interpreted differently.
Developers worked with incomplete context.
Airlines, GDSs, and vendors all had slightly different expectations.
And suddenly, what was meant to be a “standard” became anything but standard.
This is not a criticism of NDC. It is a reflection of how airline technology works in practice.
Even today, recent industry discussions continue to highlight how airlines are still balancing legacy PSS structures with newer Offer and Order models, with many programmes taking longer than expected to fully transition. The direction is right. The execution is still catching up.
Recent momentum… but the same underlying challenge
Over the past 30 days, there’s been a noticeable shift in industry conversations.
Airlines are pushing further into AI-driven operations, dynamic pricing, and modular retailing platforms. There is real progress being made, particularly around personalisation and operational efficiency.
But beneath that progress, the same execution challenges remain.
How do you integrate new capabilities into legacy stacks?
How do you align commercial, IT, and distribution teams?
How do you move fast without breaking critical infrastructure?
These are not technology questions. They are people and structure questions.
The real skill: translation
One of the most underrated skills in airline tech is the ability to translate.
Not language.
Not even technical detail.
But meaning.
Sitting between teams who are saying the same words but interpreting them differently.
Understanding both the commercial objective and the technical constraint.
Turning disagreement into alignment.
This is where programmes succeed or fail.
And increasingly, this is what hiring managers are looking for.
At Thornton Gregory, we see this first-hand. The demand is not just for technical specialists. It’s for people who can operate across domains:
Commercial and IT
Legacy systems and modern architecture
Strategy and delivery
Because without that bridge, even the best strategy struggles to land.
Startups, scale, and the reality of building something new
This gap between strategy and reality is even more visible in startups.
The idea is strong. The vision is clear. The product roadmap is ambitious.
But funding often comes from consulting or services first. Which creates a false sense of progress.
Revenue is coming in.
Work is happening.
But the core product is not yet validated.
It’s a difficult balance. And many companies fall into the same trap, building for perfection instead of proving value early.
Airlines face a similar challenge internally.
Do you build the perfect system?
Or do you deliver something usable and evolve it?
The answer is usually the latter. But that requires a shift in mindset.
Experience still matters… but so does challenge
There is another dynamic playing out across the industry right now.
Post-Covid, airlines lost a significant amount of experienced talent. At the same time, there has been a renewed influx of new professionals entering the space.
That creates tension, but also opportunity.
Experienced professionals bring context. They understand why systems exist the way they do.
New entrants bring challenge. They question assumptions. They simplify.
The best outcomes happen when both groups work together.
Not in silos. Not in conflict. But in partnership.
What this means for hiring leaders
For CIOs, CTOs, and Heads of Commercial, this all leads to one question:
Do you have the right people to execute your strategy?
Because the difference between progress and stagnation is rarely the roadmap.
It’s the team.
The individuals who can:
Navigate ambiguity
Translate across functions
Balance legacy constraints with future goals
Make decisions, not just recommendations
These are not easy profiles to find. And they are becoming more competitive.
From a recruitment perspective, we’re seeing increasing demand for talent that can bridge Offer and Order transformation, distribution strategy, and core systems. That gap is only widening.
The reality is not a problem, it’s the work
It’s easy to look at the gap between strategy and reality as a failure.
It isn’t.
It’s where the real work happens.
Airline technology has always been complex. It always will be. The goal is not to eliminate that complexity entirely, but to manage it better.
To simplify where possible.
To align where necessary.
To challenge where needed.
Because the airlines that succeed won’t be the ones with the best strategy decks.
They’ll be the ones who can actually deliver.
