Ground Transport

Passenger drones are edging their way to becoming viable options for travelers transferring to and from airports. Airlines should explore how they can take advantage of this technology through potential upgrades and loyalty points before being left behind.

Ridesharing is now the norm for business travelers. As evidenced by Skift’s new survey on corporate travel ground transportation habits, it’s now widely embraced by business travelers from organizations across all industries and company sizes.

The Hyperloop system may seem far off in the future, but the reality is that some outlandish concepts are getting closer to the mainstream. What does this mean for the airline industry going forward?

India’s Ola has started operations in two major Australian cities, following hot on the heels of Estonia’s Taxify. The newcomers are exploiting opportunities unlocked when Uber paved the way for increased competition in a market in the tight grip of taxi operators.

There used to be only two ways for railways to make money: luck and state handouts. But that's changing, as countries look at privatization and as railways look to technology to streamline operations. Sqills and SilverRail are two tech vendors that smell an opportunity.

Silvercar remains an interesting outlier in the car rental space. As part of Audi, it will be interesting to see how it grows its operation in the U.S. as self-driving vehicles hit the mainstream.

There were a ton of people who wanted the COO position at Uber, and it went to Expedia alum and former Orbtiz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford. The pressure will be on both Khosrowshahi and Harford to turn around the ridesharing company. As if there weren't abundant pressure already.

With many global markets showing healthy signs of growth and consumer and business confidence high, we expect the travel industry to benefit from a solid year of macroeconomic growth in 2018.

Now that the car rental giants have sold off their extra cars, they can focus on continuing to grow revenue. But is there really a long-term future for rental cars in a world that has embraced ridesharing?

Business travelers will lament the end of the Uber-Starwood partnership, but much more may be on the horizon for Uber's loyalty plans.