Airline Voice Radio

What does NDC success look like? with Justin Jovignot, TAP Air Portugal

For this new season of Airline Voice Radio, we welcome two new hosts. Transformation pioneers and great storytellers Nancy Delgado and Tye Radcliffe take over the mic to explore the road to high-performance retailing by engaging with industry leaders. In this episode, Tye flies solo when he meets with Justin Jovignot, TAP Air Portugal’s Director of Commercial Strategy and Distribution. Justin Jovignot has recently become the Director of Commercial Strategy and Distribution at TAP Portugal. ...

Trading up to a new revenue management vision with Melissa Skluzacek, easyJet

For this new season of Airline Voice Radio, we welcome two new hosts. Transformation pioneers and great storytellers Nancy Delgado and Tye Radcliffe take over the mic to explore the road to high-performance retailing by engaging with industry leaders. In this first episode, Tye talks to Melissa Skluzacek, easyJet’s Director of Trading and Revenue Management. Melissa has over 30 years of industry experience and has been with easyJet since January 2020. Her current position is Director of Tra...

Lovin' Distribution with Nadine Dawood Morgan, Qantas

The "Reaching New Heights" series goes down under and sees Accelya's Jim Davidson catching up with Nadine Dawood Morgan, Head of Distribution and Payments in Qantas. Nadine has been with Qantas for 11 years and worked in various marketing and loyalty roles before taking up the Distribution top spot in December 2019.  Nadine is an advocate for communication, collaboration, and engagement to increase NDC adoption. An airline can only create ambassadors to be its advocates outside when distrib...

Distribution revolution or evolution? with Jiri Marek, Air Serbia

Accelya's Jim Davidson continues the "Reaching New Heights" series with Jiri Marek, Air Serbia’s CEO. The airline is celebrating 95 years in operations this year, making it the world’s eighth oldest carrier. In a career spanning more than 20 years, Jiri has worked in many airline roles such as sales, distribution, and ancillary revenue. Jiri is a firm believer that distribution needs to transform, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to see if he thinks a revolution or an evolution woul...

Setting the tempo for a rocking startup performance with Birgir Jónsson, PLAY Airlines

The "Reaching New Heights" series returns to the airwaves with Accelya CEO Jim Davidson chatting to Birgir Jónsson, CEO at PLAY Airlines. Birgir not only brings many years of international management experience to PLAY, but he also ticked off the “become a rockstar” box and was a professional drummer in one of Iceland’s most famous bands. Now at PLAY, he’s ensuring that the airline performs at its best to give its audience what it wants.  For the first time in an Airline Voice Radio episode...

Who would want to go back to a non-smartphone? with Neil Geurin, American Airlines

Accelya CEO, Jim Davidson, starts a new Airline Voice Radio season called “Reaching New Heights” where he invites airline digital leaders to explore retailing transformation from various vantage points to inspire the industry’s journey ahead. In this season premiere, Jim chats with Neil Geurin, Managing Director of Digital Customer Experience and Distribution Strategy at American Airlines.  So, where is American Airlines on its retailing transformation journey? Its starting point is to simp...

Filling the NDC shelf with what customers want with Tamur Goudarzi Pour

Accelya CEO, Jim Davidson, completes this Titans of the Industry series of Airline Voice Radio, where he has been engaging with airline leaders from across the globe. In this latest episode, Jim talks to Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Chief Commercial Officer at Swiss International Air Lines and Senior Vice President for Channel Management at the Lufthansa Group. Tamur speaks to the necessary transformation journey for Lufthansa Group and the industry, where he notes that the path doesn’t just requir...

Fortune favors the brave with Julio Toro, Copa Airlines

Accelya CEO, Jim Davidson, continues his Titans of the Industry series of Airline Voice Radio, where he engages with airline leaders from across the globe. In this third episode, Jim chats with Julio Toro, Copa Airlines’ Chief Information Officer, about how the lack of openness has restricted innovation and has called for the industry to open up and be brave. After all, is it really better to buy the full suite? “I’ve even heard a supplier or provider tell me. “Yes, I can integrate, but I ...

A fresh perspective to overcoming challenge with Juliana Rios

Welcome back to the second podcast in our Titans of the Industry series of Airline Voice Radio, where Accelya’s newly-appointed CEO, Jim Davidson, engages with airline leaders from across the globe.  In this new episode, Jim talks to Juliana Rios, LATAM Airlines’ Chief Information Officer, about overcoming the challenges facing airline commerce. Coming from the finance industry, Juliana brings some fresh thinking to the discussion. We learn that from Juliana’s perspective, the only customer...

Customer-centricity and the dream of digital retailing with Amit Khandelwal

Welcome to a new series of four podcasts, Titans of the Industry, where we feature our own Jim Davidson in “the studio” with leaders of digital airline commerce.  In this first episode, Jim talks to Amit Khandelwal, who heads up Inventory Management, Distribution, and Revenue Steering at Emirates. Together they explore continuous pricing, controlling the offer, and the importance of industry-wide collaborations. However, the conversation always weaves its way back to putting the customer at...

Small-scale innovation: Henry Harteveldt chats with Jim Davidson

In this episode, report author Henry Harteveldt joins Jim in the studio to discuss the study’s key findings. Listen to this new episode and find out more about: Why ''airlines should get serious about retailing'' The need for airlines to be in control of their destiny How busting down the organizational silos will help airlines innovate by focusing on action “Let's talk about the little ‘i’ in innovation - you can make small tweaks and have really big gains, particularly on customer-faci...

Change Maker: Bill Cavendish chats with Jim Davidson

In this episode, Jim quizzes Bill on his learnings from the last year, which includes the importance of having a direct relationship with customers and the value that ancillary merchandising brings to the airline's bottom line. We also hear of Bill's plans to bring his retailing and distribution expertise to other airline executives as part of the Accelya team. Listen to Episode 05 of Airline Voice Radio to learn more about: The growing importance of solid technology partnerships in the wa...

Airline Content Made Easy: Steve Domin chats with Jim Davidson

In this Episode, Steve Domin, CEO, and co-founder at Duffel, joins Jim Davidson in the studio to talk about Duffel’s innovative business model and a new product launch that will bring travel sellers a wealth of fresh opportunity. Listen to Episode 04 to learn about: What inspired this technology startup to make it easier to sell airline content Duffel's new self-service platform, Duffel Content Steve's advice to entrepreneurs keen on getting into the travel space “In a few minutes, you ...

Trailblazing Transformation: George Bryan chats with Jim Davidson

In this Episode, George Bryan, Management Consultant, Distribution at Hawaiian Airlines, and former Manager, Sales Distribution Strategy at Westjet, discusses with Jim revenue-generating opportunities for airlines and transformation through NDC. As an early adopter of Accelya technology at Westjet, George has played an integral role in shaping real-world adoption of NDC and retailing. George gives us a glimpse of what the transformation journey was like and shares Hawaiian Airline's plans fo...

Corporate Travel and Collaboration: Tony D'Astolfo chats with Jim Davidson

In this episode, Tony D'Astolfo, Senior Vice President, North America, at Serko, sits down with Jim to discuss the importance of Corporate Travel. During the course of the interview, we hear Tony and Jim’s views on what it will take the bring the industry back to profitability. That is, all the players need to set competition to one side, collaborate, and play their part.  Listen to this new episode and find out more about:  How to encourage business travelers to take to the skies again  ...

Continuous Pricing and Leadership: Xavier Lagardere chats with Jim Davidson

Xavier Lagardere and Jim Davidson chat about Continuous Pricing, and the candid conversation reveals some sharp perspectives. The first episode of Airline Voice Radio features Jim and Xavier discussing the strategic benefits of Continous Pricing and why it is more important than ever. This is reflected in Lufthansa Group's rollout of a Continuous Pricing project against the backdrop of the COVID-crisis. The challenges are significant, and the opportunity is business-critical. In this episod...

Episode 0