For nearly a century, the airport journey has revolved around check-in, a process designed to verify passengers, allocate seats, and confirm baggage. But in 2025, when data can be gathered in advance, identity verified digitally, and services orchestrated by AI, we must ask why we still run vast infrastructure just to answer questions like “Are you going to fly?” The future of aviation depends on stripping back outdated flows, embracing the most modern tech and focusing on what truly matters: keeping promises to passengers.
The spotlight of aviation transformation has been on “Offer” and “Order.” Important as those are, the make-or-break of the experience for passengers happens elsewhere: at the airport, at the congested check-in area, and in the moments before and after they board. That is where promises made in an airline's offer must be kept.
For decades, our industry has built layer upon layer of process around an essentially legacy process. Much of it stems from a boarding-pass centric flow introduced nearly 90 years ago. That flow still defines how airports, airlines, and systems operate. If we’re honest, despite the modernisation of the last two decades, the underly processes are relics. They exist because “that’s how it’s always been done,” not because they add value to passengers or staff.
My philosophy is grounded in Essentialism, devoting one's energy on what is absolutely necessary and stripping away the rest. If you were to clear out your entire house before tidying it, it is easier to decide what is truly worth keeping. Aviation needs the same courage: don't tidy the clutter; instead, declutter.
Take check-in. Airports maintain massive infrastructure and resources to ask questions like “Are you going to fly?” and “Window or aisle?” – questions we can resolve long before a passenger reaches the airport. Government data collection? That can happen weeks in advance. Upselling and customising the journey to a customer's particular needs, many of which don't change much? Systems and automation can handle that. What remains essential in the airport is baggage processing and safe boarding. Everything else deserves re-examination. Even incremental changes to the processing of billions of bags have a massive effect. Over 1 million kilometres of unrecyclable baggage tags are printed every year to add some data points to luggage. The industry can do better.
At Ink, we’ve concluded that the Departure Control System (DCS) as a product category has outlived its relevance. All of its functions must remain - we've identified around 1600 of them in our own system – but the framing must change. Service delivery is the new frontier.
Four foundational pillars will carry the industry forward:
- AI, to automate tedious actions and orchestrate complex operations.
- Digital ID, to simplify verification and empower passengers to control the privacy of their identity information.
- Biometrics, to accelerate recognition at key touchpoints.
Payments, unified across ground and air, so enhancing services becomes effortless.
This isn’t just about technology. It’s about putting passengers back at the centre. An industry colleague recently lamented that ONE Order is in danger of becoming “Super PNR 2.0”, oriented around things other than the guests. If we don’t design with people in mind, we risk rebuilding the same rigid flows with new labels and data structures
As we adopt new orchestration models, we must insist on interoperability. Aviation is too conservative in waiting for the perfect aviation-specific standard. Digital ID is already succeeding elsewhere. Our task is not to reinvent it, but to make existing IDs work in reality.
The question I leave you with is whether we want to optimise around the edges of an archaic journey or fundamentally change it. If the latter, then we must be brave enough to simplify, strip away what’s unnecessary, and reimagine service delivery around people.
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