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The airline information technology (IT) market is a highly fragmented one with numerous start-ups and conglomerates offering various airline IT solutions across geographies. The leading companies in this market have distinguished their products and services from the rest of the market by maintaining a long-term focus in their R&D investment strategy, by developing next-generation technological capabilities, by bundling and upselling solutions, and by developing cross-industry synergies.

COVID-19 has changed the digital priorities of airlines worldwide. The key focus is now on implementing contactless technologies, optimizing airline operations, improving merchandising efforts, and optimizing pricing and network planning.

As every facet of aviation is being digitized, there is a higher requirement for stakeholder collaboration that will enable an easy flow of data. A big-data-enabled platform is one such solution where multiple stakeholders of the aviation industry, such as airlines, MROs, and OEMs share data that will enable them to optimize their operations. Such operational data platforms are the key focus areas of major OEMs, which will mature over the long term and play a critical role in the operational IT segment of the market. This focus has led to intense competition in the operational IT segment, as OEMs are developing their own portfolio of digital solutions and have the competitive advantage of proprietary data. Airlines and solution providers will need to partner with leading technology firms, such as Google, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, which are at the forefront of the digital revolution. Such partnerships will enable them to explore the latest technological developments, identify pain points in the industry which the new technology can address, and apply it to their solutions.