The aviation industry remains one of the last industries that hasn’t modernised the way it sells its products. Outdated legacy technology, including PSS, continues to dominate airline retail — but that’s beginning to change.
Alex Mans, Founder and CEO of FLYR, sat down with us at World Aviation Festival to discuss this transformation, and how Offer-Order will rejuvenate the airline retail landscape. In a field that remains highly competitive, he sees retail as an overlooked tool for consolidation.
Airlines need to build a deep relationship with their customers through loyalty. The way you do that is by moving from a commodity to a utility, by being there for them and making it easy to buy and to service.
As well as boosting relationships with travellers, pivoting to a modern retail strategy could also help airlines unlock more revenue. Profit margins remains slim for the world’s carriers compared to travel tech juggernauts such as Booking.com. But Mans sees no reason why the aviation industry can’t build similar success in-house.
The economic impact of modern retailing is that you can sell better and sell more to travellers. You can suddenly buy your flight, your hotel, your car rental, your railway connection, your insurance, through the airline seamlessly in one place.
Some airlines have already begun this pivot to Offer-Order retailing. One of FLYR’s flagship partnerships is with new carrier Riyadh Air, the world’s first digital-native airline. Working to build infrastructure from the ground up represented an exciting opportunity for FLYR to reimagine retailing.
Riyadh Air is the shining beacon of what everybody wants to become at some point in the future, and there will be other airlines announced soon that are on a PSS and are transitioning to FLYR.
Mans concludes by offering some advice to airlines at the beginning of their Offer-Order journey:
We strongly recommend to take a hybrid approach where you start deploying in parallel and migrate over time, effectively. You can unlock incremental revenue, incremental margins, and have that pay for the complete transition journey thereafter.
🎥 Watch the interview to hear Alex Mans’ full thoughts on the airline retail transformation.
Questions asked include:
- What kind of challenges do airlines encounter when relying on legacy systems?
- What is the magnitude of economic opportunity modern retail unlocks for airlines?
- How is it that the FLYR and Riyadh Air launch has moved so quickly?
- How should airlines who aren’t starting from scratch and need to contend with migrating from a PSS think about moving to Offer and Order?
Join us at Aviation Festival Asia 2026 to discuss the future of modern airline retailing in APAC and MENA.
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