There is no shortage of enthusiasm around IATA’s Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) vision. Industry conversations are filled with confidence that this will unlock a new era of agility, personalization, and customer-centricity for airlines.
But beneath the optimism lies a harder reality: most of what is being implemented today has very little to do with full-scale retailing transformation.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s simply the truth that MAR is not about technology alone.
What MAR Is Really About
When you look past the standards and technical frameworks, five themes consistently emerge:
- Clear commercial strategy – Transformation only matters if it ties back to profitability and long-term business growth.
- Organizational readiness – People, culture, and processes must evolve alongside systems. Without this, technology upgrades fail to deliver impact.
- Realistic timelines – A shift of this scale cannot be achieved in one leap. Airlines need milestones, not moonshots.
- Honest assessment of constraints – Legacy contracts, technical debt, and regulatory barriers are not optional hurdles. They must be acknowledged upfront.
- Focus on revenue, not standards – Standards are a means, not an end. Airlines should prioritize initiatives that create immediate customer and revenue value.
MAR: Slow, Messy, and Different
The uncomfortable but important truth: MAR will not look exactly like IATA’s blueprint.
It will arrive more slowly. It will unfold unevenly across regions and business models. And it will involve years of hybrid operations, with PNRs and Orders coexisting.
The winners won’t be the ones who adopt every standard first. They will be the ones who:
- Deliver revenue-generating features regularly, not once every few years.
- Learn quickly from the mistakes and successes of others.
- Remain honest about what is working and what is not.
- Accept that hybrid operations will be permanent, not temporary.
- Organize around customers, not systems.
The Way Forward
Modern Airline Retailing is not a technology arms race. It is a business transformation marathon.
The path forward requires airlines to be pragmatic — balancing ambition with realism, and standards with business outcomes.
Those who succeed will not be defined by the systems they implement, but by the value they unlock for customers and the revenue they generate for their business.
