Expedia and JetBlue See Airline Distribution Shift During Travel Boom
Photo Credit: At Skift Aviation Forum 2022 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Julie Kyse, vice president, global air partnerships, Expedia Group, and Andres Barry, president, JetBlue Travel Products, a collection of ventures, spoke about distribution. Source: Skift. Skift / Dylan Pacholek
Skift Take
In the perpetual tug of war between airlines and online middlemen, a bit of turnabout is fair play.
Airlines used to lean on online travel agencies to find customers. But now in something of a turnabout, airlines have enough loyalists that online travel companies are, in some cases, providing services to airlines to help them sell upsells and packages directly.
Executives from Expedia Group and JetBlue discussed the changed dynamic on Wednesday at Skift Aviation Forum 2022 in Dallas-Fort Worth in a conversation with Seth Borko, senior research analyst at Skift Research.
Expedia Group has been attempting to take the sales and distribution knowledge it's built up in its consumer business and apply that to business-to-business services, as Skift has reported. The online travel giant helps airlines
