Now that APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing 2026 is behind us, I want to put this temperature check into words while it’s still fresh.
The conversation is beyond experience, it’s also about margin
The first thing you notice is the pressure on margins. Fuel currently accounts for between 25% and 27% of an airline’s operating costs, and recent volatility has pushed forecasts upward, with stress scenarios pointing to year-on-year increases of up to 56%. For an industry running on net margins of around 3.9%, any movement in fuel erodes EBITDA almost immediately.
That’s why there’s so much focus on ancillaries:
- They already account for 15.7% of total revenue.
- At low-cost carriers they can reach up to 60% of revenue.
- But much of it is still captured through friction—repetitive form-fills, legacy authentication—that drives cart abandonment at the very peak of purchase intent.
The ticket has become a loss leader; the real margin is built around the journey. And because that margin is won in the moments when passengers are most engaged, it matters enormously to roll out solutions that ease access and cut times, both at the airport and throughout the journey itself. For me, the answer lies in connecting AI agents to the payment process, built on a verified, trusted identity.
Agentic AI is gaining ground in the conversation
During the event I had the privilege of joining the panel “How Agentic AI is shifting the way the aviation commercial ecosystem operates, and what the future might hold”, sharing the stage with Eric Léopold of Threedot, Shashank Nigam of SimpliFlying, Yilmaz Gorali of Turkish Airlines, and Everton Oliveira of Ryanair Labs. And if there was one thing we all agreed on, it was this:
As autonomous agents become more prevalent, providing Digital Trust relies on:
Accountability: Know exactly who is behind every transaction—whether it’s a human user (KYC), a business (KYB), or an AI (KYA + Agent Reputation).
Traceability: Tracking every step of a transaction isn’t just about compliance; it’s how we gain actionable insights into customer and agent behavioral analytics.
Non-repudiation: By relying on verifiable intent, cart data, and cryptographic transaction mandates, accountability, and traceability altogether, we can effectively deter chargeback fraud.
The technology is here; now it’s about adoption.
If you’d like to explore how this technology could apply to your business, let’s look at it together in a 15-minute assessment session. Let’s Map your Passenger Identity Journey together.
