A significant portion of Day 1 was dedicated to the aviation industry’s Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) framework, which is fundamentally shaping how customers discover and book trip elements, and how bookings are serviced and paid for.

Lauri Reishus, President and CEO of ARC, identified three “building blocks” of MAR: 1. NDC-enabled Offers, 2. Dynamic Pricing, and 3. Order Management (or ‘One Order’). ARC’s CEO also noted the corporation settled nearly US$1 billion in air sales in the year ending September.

“The travel industry is in fine shape,” Lauri declared. “Global tourism is on track this year to deliver US$11 trillion in global GDP. Travel & Tourism remains the world’s largest employer. Airlines are a subset of global tourism, and they too are doing really well, with growth of 4% across the globe. Some markets are really standing out. Asia Pacific is up 5% year over year, Africa Middle East up 6%… and in the US… international outbound has been our bright spot.”

Lauri told the audience: “We are deeply grateful for our partnership with AirlinePros.” There are 53 airlines that are part of the AirlinePros family that work with ARC, she said, and more than a million transactions valued at over US$50 million in sales had come from these carriers. “It’s a truly valuable partnership for us, and we’re thrilled to be here. We want to help reduce that drag as you advance your business,” Lauri explained.

Elcia Grandcourt, Regional Director for Africa, UN Tourism gave an insightful presentation of the big picture view of tourism through the lens of sustainability (biodiversity) and inclusiveness agendas like the Empowerment of Women, Promoting Cultural Heritage, Unlocking Growth Through Public-Private Partnerships, Expansion of Capacity Building, Strengthening Tourism Statistics Data Systems, and more.

Mosilo Sofonia, Head of Global Trade, SA Tourism, urged “Africa is ready to collaborate”.

Present for the duration of the conference, Mosilo remarked on the reach of AirlinePros’ truly international network and drew a link between AIA 2025 and the first G20 Summit on African soil, taking place over the same weekend as AirlinePros’ assembly.

She said: “On behalf of South African Tourism and all of our industry partners, thank you for being here and for choosing Cape Town. Aviation brings the world to Africa and to South Africa. We are showing that we want to work together. On this continent, we come as one! We want to work and put our efforts together.”

The call was reinforced by Matongo Matamwandi from the Zambia Tourism Agency, Sebulon Chicalu from the Namibia Tourism Board, and Keitumetse Setlang from Botswana Tourism, whose impressive destination marketing presentations aimed to inspire AirlinePros to promote the region and air lift in 2026 and beyond.

Paul van den Brink, Aviation Lead, Cape Town Air Access (Wesgro), offered a big-picture view of developments shaping Cape Town’s air route network expansion. Having just celebrated the project’s 10-year anniversary in October, Paul demonstrated the enormous commercial success and unstoppable progress when private and public-sector partners align.

On the Industry front, collaborator and long-time friend of AirlinePros, Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA, called for the sharing of data among African airlines and industry partners. He was especially excited about the potential to capture the untapped ancillary revenues, an opportunity being missed by many small and medium sized airlines, a topic demonstrated during various AIA presentations.

Aaron commented: “This year (AIA) is much bigger, with more partners. It is a very good example for everybody to learn about collaboration and partnerships. When you have partners collaborating with a single-minded purpose, you are able to achieve much more.”

Commenting on the launch and possibility of more arrivals via the different channels, Aaron concluded: “We always believe that the world is a book, and that those who don’t travel only read one page. I believe, with Flying Carpet, we are going to open more books and avenues to learn more about each other.”

Looking to the future, Chris Jones representing ForwardKeys and Go-To-Market Leader for Amadeus Travel Intelligence, and Julia Louw, Acting Chief Tourism Officer, Wesgro, delivered impactful presentations on using market intelligence to inform route development and destination marketing strategies, and how spreading tourist footfalls can preserve the world’s rural communities and cultures.

Rebecca Meadows, Regional Managing Partner and Executive Director of AirlinePros Brazil, demonstrated standardized pricing guideline for the servicing of National Tourism Offices (NTOs), boutique hotels, car hire companies, and more. Meanwhile, Rodney D’Cruz has joined the AirlinePros team to develop a brand-new AirlinePros Cargo GSA service, underlining the potential for future air cargo business.

Last but not least… As an introduction for AirlinePros’ global teams and distinguished guests to get to know each other better, they were offered a hypothetical US$100,000 and asked to elaborate on how they would spend it. It was amazing to witness the different perspectives of needs of people from the diverse cultures, people at the different stages of life, the levity (the need for a 2nd wife!) and the spirit of philanthropy among many.

For more AIA highlights, visit www.airlinepros.com/aia