Skift

“Identity is the missing layer between orchestration and execution.” When brands can recognize 3x to 6x more visitors, everything changes — from email to paid media. Explore Wunderkind’s new guide: hubs.li/Q04py2g70 In partnership with @Wunderkind

Join us on LinkedIn Live TODAY at 2pm ET. The global airline industry is navigating its most volatile year since COVID, marked by sharp cost pressures and complex shifting dynamics. Between rising fuel prices and persistent supply chain bottlenecks, carriers are under immense pressure—but the industry narrative remains nuanced. Here are the key trends we are tracking: - Pricing Power: Despite fuel spikes, carriers are maintaining strength, bolstered by continued high demand for premium travel. - Supply Constraints: Ongoing aircraft shortages are keeping capacity tight, which is effectively mitigating traditional competitive warfare. - The Revenue Divide: In the U.S. market, the gap is widening between airlines with sustainable revenue solutions and those struggling to fix deep-seated cost problems. - European Landscape: We are watching a significant tourism boom alongside critical questions about future consolidation and profitability gaps between major carriers. As Q2 earnings season begins, the big questions remain: Will premium demand hold steady, and how will the latest merger rumors shape the competitive field? Get the full analysis LIVE today at 2pm ET: hubs.li/Q04pvgn90

With Skift Global Forum 2026 just a few months away in September, we're revisiting a conversation from last year's event. TravelBank's Tory Passons, SVP of product and corporate payment partnerships for U.S. Bank, says the platforms winning right now aren't replacing agents with AI. They're giving agents better tools. Get the story here: hubs.li/Q04pnVx-0 In partnership with TravelBank

Travel's hardest questions right now aren't hypothetical. How do you price a room when an AI agent is doing the booking on someone else's behalf? What's the actual playbook when a geopolitical flare-up reroutes half your network overnight? How do you keep a loyalty program meaningful when points are becoming their own currency? These are the exact problems on the desks of the people running the world's largest travel companies - and they're what Skift Global Forum was rebuilt to solve. September 22–24. North Javits Center, New York. 1,000+ leaders from 40 countries, working through what's actually in front of them. Hear how the CEOs of Hilton, Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Accor, and Virgin Atlantic are handling it - specifics, not platitudes. Register now: hubs.li/Q04pj1L70

Canadian travel to the U.S. is "recovering" — but only against a very low bar. Canadian return trips from the U.S. rose 3.2% in June year-over-year, but that's still down almost 29% versus June 2024. The gain is largely a base effect from last year's steep boycott-driven collapse tied to political tensions between the two countries. Forward bookings tell a more cautious story: Flight Centre Canada reports U.S. bookings down 27% for the rest of 2026, while demand shifts toward long-haul destinations like Japan (+15%) and Italy (+8%). The takeaway: sentiment toward U.S. travel remains fragile, and Canadian travelers are increasingly looking elsewhere. hubs.li/Q04pqLsK0

Vacasa's centralized model didn't scale. So Casago is dismantling it. Vacasa spent a decade and ~200 acquisitions building a centralized vacation rental empire, once valued at $4.5B privately. Casago bought it in 2025 for under $100M and has since sold nearly all 32,000 units back to local owners, converting most into franchises. The lesson: centralizing property management drove homeowner churn instead of creating synergies. Now Casago keeps the brand and collects royalties while local operators carry the risk. Proximity and trust are hard to replicate from headquarters. hubs.li/Q04pqKGd0

Accor and IndiGo just linked their loyalty programs. Members of IndiGo's BluChip (13M+ strong) and Accor's ALL Rewards can now convert points between flights and hotel stays. It's one of India's first airline-hotel loyalty exchanges — and both companies say it's just the first step toward a fuller integrated travel ecosystem covering flights, stays, and experiences. The bigger signal: travel brands are moving from standalone loyalty programs to owning the entire trip. hubs.li/Q04pnslk0

Visa refusals, shifting political sentiment toward host destinations, and protectionist policy are reshaping which international associations can meet where, and what it costs them. That is one of six decisions on the agenda at Skift Meetings Forum: a one-day program for 400 senior corporate, association, and agency planners, September 22 at the Javits Center in New York City. Three acts: geopolitical reality, budget and staffing pressure, and artificial intelligence moving from side project to infrastructure decision. Every session is built around a decision planners are already facing before year end. Apply here: hubs.li/Q04pqDQh0

The travel industry has no shortage of customer data. The challenge is that travelers are increasingly sharing valuable context with AI assistants instead of hotels, airlines, and OTAs. That possibility sat at the center of an attendee roundtable hosted by Mindtrip at Skift Data + AI Summit 2026. Underlying the discussion was the question: If AI knows travelers better than brands do, who owns the relationship? The conversation raised important questions about personalization, trust, and where customer relationships are headed. Read the recap here: hubs.li/Q04mXLXl0 In partnership with @Mindtripai

Great hospitality is an exchange, not a delivery. A new book analyzed 1,800 hotel reviews and found only 2.6% mentioned design — most were complaints. Guests remember people and moments, not marble lobbies. The real insight: the best experiences ask something of the guest too — attention, curiosity, presence. A safari guide can only go as deep as the guest lets them. A five-star dinner falls flat if everyone's filming instead of tasting. Luxury has long meant pure effortlessness. But strip away all participation, and you strip away meaning too. hubs.li/Q04pmKS40

This week in Airline Weekly: Delta proves premium travel beats inflation. Despite jet fuel costs jumping nearly 75% year-over-year, Delta posted a ~9% operating margin in Q2 — beating its own guidance. The driver: premium demand, now generating more revenue than main cabin seats, up 72% since 2019. The airline just rolled out a leaner "Basic Business" fare, joining United, Air India, and IndiGo in unbundling premium products for price-sensitive flyers. Elsewhere: easyJet's takeover battle intensifies as Apollo tops Castlelake's bid, JetBlue adds 14 new Fort Lauderdale routes, and Air Canada names SAS's Anko van der Werff as its next CEO. hubs.li/Q04pk1ZF0

Can lifestyle hotel brands go all-inclusive without losing their identity? Ennismore is testing that with Mondrian, whose first all-inclusive resort opens in Cancun this year. The group already runs ~60 all-inclusive properties (mostly Rixos) and is now extending the model to premium brands like Mondrian and SLS — betting that strong design and F&B chops can elevate the format beyond its buffet-and-wristband reputation. Not every brand fits, though. Leadership has admitted some brand identities are too "entrenched" to stretch this way without friction. As mass-market giants like RIU, Sandals, and Hyatt keep scaling all-inclusive, there's a real opening for lifestyle brands to move upmarket — if they resist just slapping a logo on the format. hubs.li/Q04pjRvs0

The calendar fills up fast. The inbox doesn't stop. Some things are still worth the trip. Three days that give you the strategy, the perspective, and the clarity to lead better. Join us at Skift Global Forum · September 22–24 · New York City Secure your seat → hubs.li/Q04pj9-30

The 2026 World Cup is showing that timing beats budget in real-time marketing. While official FIFA sponsors pay millions for brand rights, several travel brands have won attention for free just by moving fast. Meet Boston turned stories of Scottish fans emptying local bars into a witty "come back anytime" ad campaign. United Airlines poked fun at FIFA's strict branding rules with a draped-seatback-screen post advertising "unnamed global sporting event" livestreams, then followed up with a billboard inviting Bostonians to visit their "new Scottish friends." Air Transat compared World Cup ticket prices to round-trip flights to make its own pitch. And Scandinavian Airlines leaned into Norway's viral "Viking Row" chant with a themed video. None of these brands paid for official sponsorship. All of them got attention sponsors spend millions chasing. The lesson: culture moves fast, and the brands that respond quickly are winning the room. hubs.li/Q04pghg40

Airlines aren't just adding premium seats — they're rebuilding around them. New Skift Research shows premium cabins generated $188 billion in 2024, 24% of global airline revenue. Premium seat capacity in the U.S. has grown twice as fast as economy since 2020, and even low-cost carriers have nearly doubled premium capacity. Delta's premium revenue is up almost 50% since 2019; at Air Canada, premium is nearly 30% of total revenue. The driver: a widening income divide is expanding the pool willing to pay for comfort, with over 70% of travelers now open to booking premium — many self-funded leisure travelers, not just corporate accounts. The risk: as carriers converge on the same premium-heavy strategy, oversupply could dilute yields. hubs.li/Q04pgY5_0

Delta's Q2 earnings sent a clear signal: travel demand shows no sign of slowing. Despite fuel price volatility, Delta reaffirmed its 2026 profit outlook, driven by strong demand, a high fuel-cost recapture rate, and airfares that remain well below overall inflation. Notably, demand strength wasn't just in premium — main cabin revenue grew double digits, aided by capacity shifts following Spirit Airlines' collapse. As CFO Erik Snell put it, after 21 years at the company, he can't recall a time when demand for travel experiences has been this strong. A confident start to airline earnings season. hubs.li/Q04pgycL0

The metric worth watching in hotel earnings season isn't RevPAR, it's incentive management fees. Unlike franchise and base management fees, which track revenue, incentive fees move with actual hotel profit. They're paid to operators like Marriott International as a share of a property's operating profit, once certain conditions are met. Q1 2026 delivered record or near-record results across Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. When these three report Q2 earnings, incentive fee trends will show whether that profit strength is broad-based and durable, or concentrated in a few markets. A quiet line item, but one of the clearer signals of how healthy the hotel business really is underneath the headline numbers. hubs.li/Q04pftn20

From Friday: Booking Holdings is consolidating its B2B business — bringing hubs.li/Q04pfHzF0, Agoda, and Priceline together into a single formal unit, overseen by Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern. The move marks a shift for a company long known for keeping its brands independent, each with its own management and market focus. Partners powered by Booking's B2B offerings already include Citi Travel, Apple, Microsoft, American Airlines, Southwest, and Emirates. The strategic logic is clear when you look at Expedia, whose B2B revenue grew 25% year-over-year in Q1 2026 versus just 8% for its consumer business. B2B lets travel companies expand into markets where their brand isn't well known, without paying the usual performance-marketing costs to Google. hubs.li/Q04pg8p80

Accor's Ennismore spinout is getting real. The group has reportedly lined up Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan, and Société Générale to explore a U.S. IPO for its lifestyle hotel venture — home to brands like The Hoxton and Delano — with a listing possible as early as this year. The move follows CEO Sébastien Bazin's comment that Accor needs to meet a "liquidity commitment" to Ennismore's co-investors, including a Qatari consortium, with an IPO as one of several paths under consideration. On valuation: Bloomberg Intelligence estimates around $3.7 billion — near the low end of last year's analyst range, and well above the $2.3 billion valuation from Ennismore's 2022 Qatari investment. Worth watching as lifestyle hospitality brands test public markets. hubs.li/Q04pg0FR0

✈️ The aviation industry is entering its next chapter. The question is: will you help shape it? Join us at the Skift Aviation Forum on November 12 at the iconic TWA Hotel at JFK in New York City, where the industry's top airline executives, innovators, and decision-makers will tackle the biggest opportunities and challenges ahead. From profitability and capacity to sustainability and technology, these are the conversations defining the future of air travel. Be in the room where aviation's next moves are made 👉 hubs.li/Q04pfJmH0