Airline CEOs See AI Reshaping How They Sell Tickets and Handle Customers
Airline executives believe artificial intelligence will reduce friction in travel by eliminating traditional websites, shrinking contact centers and automating routine operational decisions. Speaking at the Aviation Festival Americas conference in Miami this week, CEOs from LATAM Airlines, WestJet and Breeze Airways outlined how AI will reshape customer interaction and backend operations-though they cautioned that aircraft maintenance will still require human engineering expertise.
Roberto Alvo, CEO of LATAM Airlines Group, said execution matters more than technology access. "Technology in itself is going to be off the shelf," he said. "The real differentiator will be how the airline has to organize itself to extract the full potential of the technology."
Customers May Stop Using Airline Apps
Alvo predicted that "agentic ecommerce" platforms-AI systems that act on behalf of customers-will mature within five years, making traditional airline websites and apps obsolete. "In five years, it'll be hard to go to a web page or to an app again," he said. "You're just going to interact with the problem somehow, probably vocally."
Customer preferences will remain mixed. Some travelers will still want to speak with people during disruptions or complex itineraries, while others may find automated systems faster and more efficient than human interaction.
Contact Centers Will Shrink
Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of WestJet, described AI as potentially the biggest operational and commercial transformation airlines have experienced since the internet economy emerged. "This will probably be the most fundamental revolution in the way businesses are performed that we have seen in decades," he said, noting AI's ability to replace large amounts of highly skilled work.
Staffing in airline contact centers will likely decline over time as automated systems handle larger volumes of customer interaction. But von Hoensbroech stressed that human agents will remain necessary in many situations. "The relationship piece matters a lot in aviation," he said.
David Neeleman, CEO of Breeze Airways, operates without traditional call centers today. His airline uses messaging-based customer support combined with automated AI systems and remote agents who handle multiple conversations simultaneously. "Now we have the AI layer on top of that that tries to answer 80% of the questions, and we have the human behind that," he said.
Maintenance Troubleshooting Gets Faster
Predictive maintenance emerged as the most immediate operational opportunity. Airlines collect enormous amounts of aircraft performance data, and executives believe AI tools will dramatically accelerate maintenance troubleshooting, parts forecasting and operational decisions.
Neeleman described one recent example where Breeze loaded its Minimum Equipment List manual into an AI model. The system reduced the time required to determine whether a maintenance issue could be deferred from roughly 20 minutes to seconds. "That AI is mindboggling on what one person can do in a short period of time," he said.
Alvo pointed to predictive maintenance as an area where AI could meaningfully improve airline operations through faster processing of complex data. "With parallel processing, we'll find a way of doing that much better than today," he said.
The Human Element Remains
Despite the enthusiasm for automation, executives acknowledged that aviation's biggest operational headaches-particularly aircraft reliability and maintenance-will still require traditional engineering and human oversight. Technology alone cannot replace the judgment and expertise that maintenance teams bring to safety-critical decisions.
For customer support professionals, this shift means the role will evolve rather than disappear. AI for Customer Support will handle routine inquiries, but handling complex situations, relationship-building and exceptions will remain human responsibilities. Understanding how AI Agents & Automation work will become essential knowledge for anyone managing customer interactions in the coming years.
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