Airlines and Airports Digital Services: Delivering Industry-Specific Value Through AI-First Solutions

Airlines and airport enterprises are collectively advancing toward AI-driven, digitally integrated operations to improve efficiency, revenue, and passenger experience. They are deploying agentic AI to automate complex workflows, including flight rerouting, crew optimization, real-time offer generation, and airport coordination. To support seamless and contactless travel while meeting regulatory mandates from the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Air Transport Association, they are adopting interoperable biometric identity systems that enable a frictionless end-to-end journey. At the same time, airlines are shifting to AI-powered dynamic pricing and modern retailing models to optimize ancillary revenues and transition loyalty programs toward spend-based structures. Strengthened cybersecurity measures, such as zero-trust architectures and advanced SOC capabilities, are being implemented to protect critical aviation systems. Additionally, organizations are leveraging AR/VR, digital twins, and generative AI copilots to accelerate workforce training, enhance safety, and address talent shortages.

Both demand- and supply-side trends are covered in Avasant’s Airlines and Airports Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™ and Airlines and Airports Digital Services 2026 RadarView™, respectively. These reports present a comprehensive study of digital service providers in the airlines and airports industry, including top trends, analysis, and recommendations. The reports also take a close look at the s, and tech pioneers in this market.

We evaluated 51 service providers across two dimensions: practice maturity and future-proofing. Of the 51 providers, we recognized 26 service providers that brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.

The reports recognize service providers across five categories:

• • Leaders: Capgemini, Cognizant, HCLTech, Coforge, TCS, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro
  • Innovators: DXC Technology, Infosys, IBM, and Accenture
  • Disruptors: Kyndryl, IGT Solutions, LTM, Atos, Hexaware, and Sutherland
  • Challengers: Softtek, Virtusa, Mphasis, and NTT DATA
  • Tech Pioneers: SITA, Travelport, Accelya Group, Sabre Corporation, and Amadeus

The figure below from the full report illustrates these categories:

“Airlines and airports are accelerating agentic and Gen AI to orchestrate seamless, contactless journeys and embed intelligence across the value chain from dynamic pricing and disruption management to predictive maintenance,” said Madhu Kaushik, Partner at Avasant. “This is no longer a transformation; it is a competitiveness mandate.”

The reports provide several findings, including the following:

• • As irregular operational disruptions cost each carrier $50M–$200M annually due to expensive recovery and tight margins, demand for autonomous systems is rapidly increasing.
  • Growing demand for contactless travel, regulatory mandates, and capacity pressures are pushing airports to eliminate physical document checks.
  • Declining ticket yields are exposing significant pricing inefficiencies, with airlines leaving 3%–8% revenue unrealized and allowing 15%–25% of passengers to pay less than they are willing; this is accelerating the shift to AI-driven dynamic offers and New Distribution Capability.
  • Rising cyber risks, regulatory pressure, and reliance on digital and OT systems are leading to higher investments in cybersecurity.

Rising talent shortage and training costs are driving the need for rapid skill readiness in safety-critical environments.

“IT service providers are enhancing their industry-specific solutions by embedding agentic and Gen AI capabilities,” said Amar Verma, lead analyst at Avasant. “They are engineering agentic AI solutions across the industry value chain at the subprocess level to improve business efficiency.”

The RadarView also features detailed profiles of 26 providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting airlines and airport enterprises in their digital transformation journeys.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of Avasant’s Airlines and Airports Digital Services 2026 Market Insights™ and Airlines and Airports Digital Services 2026 RadarView™ (click for pricing).