Discussing the value of air traffic data to travel retailers.

Moderated by TRBusiness Editorial Director Faye Bartle, the second session of the first morning at the TR Consumer Forum expanded on the keynote from Peter Mohn, Owner & CEO of m1nd-set. He was joined by Marc Heinicke, AD Travel and Tourism Economic BI, CP&S-BIS-Business Intelligence Solutions, IATA.

Together, they presented ‘Turning Air Traffic Data into Action ’ about the importance of quality air traffic data and how this can be best utilised to power mid- and long-term business planning in travel retail.

Heinicke pointed out the most significant developments in traffic since the end of the pandemic crisis. He told Forum delegates: “Traffic growth since the pandemic has been mainly driven by the leisure traveller.” Also, looking at the development of routes, the development of longer-range aircraft, such as Indigo’s routes between India and Europe, is driving a reduction in reliance on connection hubs, and Heinicke emphasised that this ongoing pattern will have consequences for travel retail.

Looking in-depth at the pattern of traffic, Heinicke emphasised that the IATA core asset is a proprietary travel data set,  Direct Data Solutions (DDS), which outperforms competitors by integrating a high volume of reported direct airline sales, not just estimated travel agency sales. This provides a more robust and accurate picture of the total market, particularly regarding Point of Origin (POO) data, which is critical for understanding passenger composition and consumer preferences.

While competitors’ models are built on a shrinking base of agency sales (only 28% of the 2025 market), the DDS dataset includes 70% of reported data globally, with near-total coverage on high-value routes, such as the North Atlantic. The strategic imperative is to fuse this superior air traffic data with granular shopper insights to de-risk commercial decisions in travel retail, he told the Forum audience.