MEET THE
MEGATRENDS
SITA’s innovation report explores
12 key trends that will shape the travel
industry over the next decadeThe air transport industry is at a post-pandemic crossroads,
facing challenges from all sides. While domestic and international
Meet the travel recovery accelerates globally, airports and airlines are
scrambling to provide the seamless travel experience passengers
expect, often with slashed workforces and squeezed budgets.
Megatrends Health status verification issues still affect some parts of the
world, while the climate crisis demands swifter and more decisive
industry action and collaboration to make travel more sustainable.
Emerging technological, societal, traveler, and
Passenger expectations are also changing with the development
economic trends have significantly morphed the of new technologies, while societal and generational shifts, along
travel landscape over the last few years, forcing with new working practices, are affecting all of us, while at the
same time evolving the role of the workforce in the transport
industry, governments, and workforces to adapt
industry. We now have an opportunity to re-imagine the world of
rapidly. A new era of travel is fast emerging, travel, connect the dots, and transform travel with bold solutions
featuring trusted digital identities, hyper-efficientthat cross sectors and exploit the latest technologies. We
metaverse-like airport operations, sustainable must collaborate today and build agility and resilience into the
transport industry to make travel seamless, trusted, safe, and
aviation, a full digital economy, and air taxis.sustainable for all.
These Megatrends do not exist in silos but operate in an evolving
ecosystem where emerging technologies interconnect the
trends and help drive them forward. Data is at the heart of this
ecosystem. The increasing willingness of providers to share data
across the transport industry will help further accelerate these
trends and pave the way to the more connected, seamless travel
experience that passengers want. These trends are shaping
SITA’s own innovation agenda. Underscoring SITA’s commitment
to innovation, SITA revised its internal innovation model with
bolstered resources, additional R&D investment, and best-in-
class ideation models in 2022.
In SITA’s ‘Meet the Megatrends’ innovation report, we take a
closer look at 12 key trends shaping the future of travel and
explore how technology is responding or influencing these
trends. This report was developed by the SITA Lab team and
draws upon insights from across the travel industry, new SITA
global research, and the latest cutting-edge Proofs-of-Concept
to identify the most powerful shifts that will drive the industry’s
evolution by 2033.
I hope you find this report useful.
Ilkka Kivel"a
VP Strategy and Innovation Strategy ManagementMEET THE
MEGATRENDS
Methodology The Trends
SITA’s ‘Meet the Megatrends’ report draws upon SITA identified 12 trends across four
insights from across the travel industry and the categories: emerging technology, societal,
latest Proofs-of-Concept from the SITA Labtraveler, and economic trends
We have identified powerful shifts that will Ranked by impact from 1-5 (with 5 representing
drive the travel industry’s evolution by 2033most impactful), how much they will drive
change in the air transport industry
The report cites SITA’s unreleased 2022
IT Insights researchThe SITA Lab’s projections span a 10-year view
The trends are forcing a rapid adaptation by
industry, governments, and workforces
Each trend in the following report is
ranked by impact, time, and how it maps
to the above categories2023
2027 1/12 / The shifting staff culture and Great Resignation / 2023–2027
1/12 Societal Trends
IMPACT
The pandemic decimated workforces globally, and the air
The shifting stafftransport industry was particularly hard hit, with 62 million
Travel & Tourism jobs lost in 2020. Many workers who resigned
or lost their jobs have not returned, leaving a workforce shortage
culture and Greatin critical areas like ground handling. The US reported that
about 50 million employees resigned last year; the same trend
Resignationis happening in the UK, France, and Singapore, where work
patterns are no longer the same as in the pre-COVID days. The
experiment of working from home and remote locations has
Airports and airlines will have to restructure their changed company culture, likely permanently.
workforces using technology to work differently. Technology
Issues stemming from reduced or inexperienced labor forces
means achieving more scalable operations and upskilling in the air transport industry include cancellations, delays,
employees to support these changes, with a more significantmishandled baggage, or long queues at security – all of which
focus on service.threaten long-term industry recovery.
Automation will allow operations to be scaled, enabling a The industry is responding by investment in digitizing the
more agile workforce, with employees’ value shifting to highly passenger journey and the operations supporting that experience.
This gives airlines and airports more agility and scalability in
skilled, empowered decision-makers and service-orientated
their operations, enabling them to better respond to rapidly
roles. Peaks and troughs of work will be addressed through
changing situations. This is being driven through the wide-spread
digitalization. adoption of biometrics and mobile passenger journeys, as well as
more automated operations. This means that fewer employees
are needed to complete mundane tasks, and that airports and
airlines can direct people to manage more complex or service-
orientated tasks.
At the same time, younger generations have embraced the shift
to task/outcome-based flexi jobs, prioritizing health and wellness
and harnessing technology to work more efficiently and flexibly.
Airports and airlines must examine how technology can drive
more rewarding outcomes for workers, explore how robotics or
automation can replace laborious facets of their roles, and offer
remote working via increasingly immersive experiences like
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
Tellingly, SITA’s 2022 IT Insights survey reveales a new investment
priority for airlines this year: augmented VR for staff, with 9% of
airlines confirming major programs and another 55% confirming
R&D programs for 2022.