By Hugh Aitken, COO, Dohop
More than 200 million passengers combine scheduled flights across different airlines each year. Most book these itineraries expecting the same level of support they receive on single-carrier trips: coordinated rebooking when flights are delayed, baggage that arrives at their final destination, and a clear point of contact when something goes wrong.
The current gap between that expectation and the reality of most multi-carrier journeys creates myriad problems for passengers and airlines alike. Traditional interline agreements were designed to address this, but they require lengthy negotiations, bilateral commitments, and operational overhead that are onerous for many airlines, particularly low-cost and hybrid carriers. Virtual interlining has expanded route options without formal partnerships, but leaves passengers exposed when disruptions occur and forces them to manage their own baggage transfers at connection points, unless the traveller purchases specialty insurance products like ConnectSure or the airline supports airside baggage transfer like BagConnect.
Airlines are now looking for a third path, one that offers the reach of virtual interlining with the reliability that interlining was supposed to provide, while maintaining control of the customer relationship and avoiding the complexity of legacy agreements. We call that connected travel.
The shift toward Offer and Order
The industry’s move toward offer and order retailing is changing how airlines approach multi-carrier journeys. Under this model, airlines create and manage offers through their own systems, with full visibility into pricing, packaging, and distribution. They also own the order from purchase through delivery, including any changes, disruptions, or ancillary services along the way.
This approach works well for single-carrier itineraries. Extending it to multi-carrier journeys requires a different kind of coordination, one that defines how each partner participates in the offer, who owns the order, and how servicing and recovery work across the trip. Connected travel provides exactly that.
Where legacy models fall short
Traditional interline and virtual interline each address part of the problem, but neither delivers what airlines now require.
Traditional interline offers passenger protection, baggage handling, and rebooking across carriers. But the model depends on bilateral agreements that take months (or longer) to negotiate and lock airlines into long-term commitments. Many point-to-point carriers have concluded that the overhead is not worth the benefit.
Virtual interline addresses speed. Airlines and OTAs can combine flights without formal partnerships and bring new routes to market in days rather than months. But when disruptions occur, traditional remediation processes don’t apply. Baggage handling is unsupported, and control often stays with OTAs rather than the airlines whose brands passengers expect to see.
As multi-carrier and the potential combination of journeys scale globally, these gaps become harder to ignore. Passengers notice when their bags are delayed or don’t arrive. Airlines notice when their customer service teams field complaints about itineraries they don’t control.
Structured coordination through connected travel
Connected travel addresses these limitations by treating multi-segment trips as a coordinated journey. Airlines define clear rules for servicing, disruption handling, and baggage transfer across partners. The carrier that sells the itinerary owns the order and the customer relationship.
A number of airlines are already illustrating how this works in practice. easyJet’s Worldwide platform, powered by Dohop, connects with more than 20 partner airlines and provides a product (ConnectSure) passengers can elect to purchase to cover themselves during disruption. Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), uses the model to link its network with connecting flights, giving passengers access to destinations beyond its operated routes while providing a single point of accountability. All told, our platform saw a 19% increase in the number of destinations available across our partner network in 2025, reflecting the growth and positive impact of connected travel.
In each case, pricing, distribution, and partner selection remain under airline control, while the airline’s global reach grows and passengers benefit from more coordinated and reliable journeys.
Better outcomes through greater control
Airlines that adopt connected travel gain more than operational consistency. They gain commercial flexibility.
Carriers can launch new connections with partners, test performance, and adjust or discontinue routes based on results. They can define which partners participate, offer a servicing and recovery solution that works for passengers, and manage how connected itineraries appear in their retail channels. They can extend their networks without ceding control to third parties or waiting for traditional agreements to close. For example, Scoot was able to add 30 additional international destinations almost immediately once it implemented its connected travel platform. Air India Express added 60 new destinations with a similar deployment.
Passengers, for their part, can navigate through their journey as a unified, supported trip, with airside baggage transfer, defined and transparent protocols for disruption, and clear lines of communication and accountability. It’s a significant improvement over the typical self-connected journey.
As offer and order retailing matures, connected travel is becoming a core component of how airlines extend their networks and manage complex itineraries. The model aligns with the promised benefits of offer and order: more control for airlines, clearer accountability across partners, and more options and a better experience for passengers.
Connected travel enables airlines to build, sell, and support complete journeys under a single set of rules, and ultimately own the relationship with the passenger. For carriers evaluating how to bring multi-carrier itineraries into their retailing strategy efficiently, connected travel can be the practical, purpose-aligned accompaniment to offer and order.
About the author
Hugh Aitken is the COO of Dohop, a travel technology company enabling connected travel through virtual interline and disruption management solutions. He has held several senior roles across travel tech and aviation, bringing broad experience across airlines, airports and digital platforms. Before joining Dohop in 2025, he was at Skyscanner, where he held several senior leadership roles, including overseeing its global flights and B2B businesses. He has also held senior commercial positions at easyJet and within the UK airport sector, giving him a strong understanding of how technology can better connect journeys and improve the overall traveller experience.
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