A look at five key findings from T2RL's 2026 airline retailing report, covering Offers & Orders adoption, technology choices, interoperability and the changing role of Delivery.
There's plenty of discussion about the future of airline retailing. T2RL's latest report, The Market for Airline Retailing and Delivery Systems 2026, brings the current market into focus: which airlines are moving towards Offers & Orders, how they're approaching the transition, and how much progress has been made so far.
Here are our takeaways.
1. The shift to Offers & Orders is underway, but adoption remains limited
The industry is increasingly aligned around the OOSD vision. However, the traditional PSS continues to underpin operations for most airlines.
According to T2RL, approximately 5.4% of the overall passenger airline market has committed to Order Management solutions, including airlines that have already implemented them. Among network airlines, the figure is almost 8%.
These figures illustrate both the progress being made and the scale of transformation still ahead.
The research identifies several airlines advancing their Order Management capabilities, including Finnair, Riyadh Air, LATAM, Saudia and Pegasus Airlines.
Rather than a simultaneous industry-wide transition, modern retailing is emerging through different implementation approaches and timelines.
2. Airlines are favouring familiar technology partners
One of the report's most interesting findings concerns how airlines are approaching their technology decisions.
T2RL observes that airlines committing to next-generation retailing platforms are predominantly choosing the suppliers that already provide their traditional PSS.
This is understandable. Migrating critical airline systems involves considerable operational risk, and maintaining an existing supplier relationship can simplify the transition.
However, the report also raises an important consideration: choosing a complete technology stack today should not prevent an airline from adopting a more modular architecture tomorrow.
For airlines, retaining access to interfaces and the ability to replace individual components may prove just as important as the initial platform decision.
3. Modularity alone is not enough. Interoperability matters.
Modularity has become a central theme in airline retailing discussions, but T2RL draws an important distinction between modularity and interoperability.
A platform may consist of separate modules without necessarily allowing airlines to integrate solutions from different suppliers easily.
True interoperability gives airlines greater freedom to select capabilities according to their business requirements and evolve their technology environment over time.
The report also acknowledges the challenges. Multi-vendor environments introduce additional integration and supplier-management complexity, while industry-wide standards for cross-vendor integration are still developing.
This makes practical collaboration between technology providers particularly important.
4. Delivery is becoming a bigger part of the conversation
While much of the industry's early Offers & Orders discussion focused on commercial capabilities, the Delivery component is receiving increasing attention.
T2RL highlights an ongoing debate about its future role.
One approach envisages Delivery becoming a relatively lightweight application connected to the Order Management System.
Another sees Delivery evolving into a broader operational capability, responsible for coordinating fulfilment across the journey, including services provided by airline and non-airline partners.
The distinction matters.
An Order records what the customer has purchased. Delivery must ensure those products and services are actually provided, while communicating their fulfilment status back to Order Management.
This extends the discussion beyond traditional departure-control functions such as check-in and boarding.
It also introduces opportunities to connect service fulfilment, disruption management, digital identity and other passenger touchpoints within an Order-based environment.
For Ink, this is an important part of the industry's transformation. Our approach with Aura, a service delivery platform, is built around evolving traditional departure control into a broader, modular Delivery platform that can support both existing airline processes and the transition towards Offers & Orders.
5. Modernisation will require legacy and new systems to coexist
Another important takeaway is that transformation does not necessarily mean replacing everything at once.
T2RL identifies legacy interfaces as an essential component of the emerging OOSD architecture.
Airlines moving towards Order-based processing will continue interacting with partners, distribution channels and operational systems that rely on traditional records such as PNRs, tickets and EMDs.
Translation and integration capabilities will therefore remain necessary throughout the transition.
This reinforces the importance of technology that can operate across both environments, allowing airlines to introduce new capabilities without requiring their entire ecosystem to modernise simultaneously.
Where the industry goes from here
The overall picture emerging from T2RL's 2026 research is one of gradual but tangible progress.
Airlines are beginning to implement the capabilities needed for modern retailing. Technology providers are refining their approaches, and the industry is paying greater attention to the relationships between individual OOSD components.
The next challenge is ensuring these components work together beyond isolated implementations.
As the industry moves forward, the ability to connect commercial decisions with operational execution will be an important part of making Offers & Orders work in practice.
Source: T2RL, The Market for Airline Retailing and Delivery Systems 2026.
