Skift Power Rankings: Alex Dichter

Alex Dichter is set to retire as leader of McKinsey’s global travel practice this year, but he’s not leaving the industry any time soon. He’ll be board chairman for HX (formerly Hurtigruten Expeditions), which provides cruise expeditions.

Dichter has the ears of leaders in the aviation and cruise industries, along with other stakeholders in the travel industry. McKinsey’s forecast, advice and reports are the to-go for tourism boards, governments, corporations and other industry groups. 

Having started out his career in aviation as a pilot, with 25 years under his belt, he’s now advising management as one of the top consultants in the sector.

McKinsey guided many carriers through the pandemic and helped them implement ancillary products and replace the entire digital infrastructure that underpin airline fare distribution, customer service and data analytics.

Dichter is no stranger to periodically poking the industry. As airlines focus on AI, NDC and other buzzwords, he’ll ask them if they have the basics down like customer communication about flight delays.

“Sometimes the big flashy shiny object that everybody is talking about can get in the way of very practical, easy to implement the cash register ideas that can work here now,” he said. 

Dichter’s contrarian views on AI, future of travel and sustainability is highly coveted by event planners.

He says he tells audiences: “Much of what we see going on in the travel industry is sustainability theater to a degree. We’ve made potentially a mistake by promising to stakeholders that we’re going to be carbon neutral by 2050. I think the chances that electric airplanes at any scale are going to be a big part of the equation is quite small. I think the chances that a pure hydrogen aircraft is making a material difference by 2050 is relatively small.”

In his next phase as chairman for HX, Dichter is excited to play a more active role in the ongoing consumer interest in experiences.

“We’re going to see it not just in the volume of travel but also how people travel and how people make choices and how people want to spend their time when they travel,” he said. “It’s incredibly exciting because it’s a much more sort of personally fulfilling way of traveling.”

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