The V1 Airline Retailing Report

Everyone credits the GDS for the things that make modern travel work: one neutral screen, every airline's fares, settlement that clears across borders. Here is what most of the industry has forgotten. None of that was designed in. The GDS did not start as neutral infrastructure. It started as a weapon. This is Part 1 of a special four-part series, and for the next four Mondays it replaces the usua...

The V1 Airline Retailing Report Episode 010 — "Amadeus Moves Upstream: The Booking Was Never the Point" Published: Monday, June 29, 2026 Episode Description For fifteen years, airline distribution fought over one question: who controls the offer. This month, three moves made it clear the industry already moved past that war. The booking in the middle was never the point. This week, Eric and Steph...

Episode: 009 - Own It or Rent It: The Model Got Cheap, the Stack Didn't Date: June 22, 2026 The AI model layer just got cheap. None of the things that actually decide who wins in travel got any cheaper. That gap is the whole episode. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing Report, Eric and Steph go underneath last week's squeeze to a single question with three answers: in the AI era, what do you act...

Episode 008 — "The Squeeze: Profits Halved, Search Costs Unbounded, Intermediaries Circling" Published: Monday, June 15, 2026 Episode Description Airline net margins are forecast to fall to two percent this year. That is not a buffer. It is a rounding error, and it is the lens for everything happening in distribution right now. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing Report, Eric and Steph trace a s...

Airlines spent a decade fighting to own their offer. This week three stories mark the same battle line from three angles — and together they reveal who's standing between the airline and the buyer right now. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing Report, Eric and Steph build one argument across three floors of the same building: the PSS incumbency layer, the MCP agent interface forming above it, an...

Episode 006 — While You Were Debating Transformation, Amadeus Actually Built It Published: Monday, June 1, 2026 Episode Description The world's first airline Native Order was created on May 5. No PNR. No e-ticket. No legacy artifact. Just a single unified record — live, on Finnair.com, through Amadeus Nevio. While Sabre was drafting a legal complaint about monopolistic behavior, Amadeus answered t...

## Episode 005 — "Born Native, Booked on the For You Page, and the Deadline Just Got Real" Published: Monday, May 25, 2026 Episode Description Last week we said the window to shape how AI agents access airline inventory is open right now. This week, three things happened that made that window measurably smaller. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing Report, Eric and Steph break down a week in whic...

The V1 Airline Retailing Report Episode 004 — "Invisible to Agents: The Infrastructure Debt Sabre Just Named Out Loud" Published: Monday, May 25, 2026 Episode Description The airline industry keeps talking about Offer and Order transformation. Only 27% have started. This episode explains why — and why the window to fix it is shorter than anyone is admitting. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing R...

Episode - 003 (May 13, 2026) Ann Cederhall just published the most honest assessment of airline retailing in years — and the results will surprise you. The State of Airline Retailing 2026 is a global survey of 213 aviation stakeholders conducted by the esteemed Ann Cederhall through LeapShift, sponsored by Retailaer. It benchmarks where the industry actually stands — not where the press releases s...

The airline distribution industry is running at three speeds simultaneously — and most people are only watching one of them. This week on The V1 Airline Retailing Report, Eric and Steph break down three stories that look separate but tell one story about where distribution power is actually moving. WestJet goes live with NDC this month — and they're calling it boring on purpose. After watching Ame...

Episode 001 — Show Description & Notes Episode Title: The Point of No Return: Airline Retailing's V1 Moment Has Arrived Published: Monday, May 5, 2026 Episode Description Welcome to the inaugural episode of The V1 Airline Retailing Report — the weekly podcast that cuts through the noise in airline and travel retailing and tells you what the headlines actually mean. In aviation, V1 is the decision...