Airline IT investment is at its highest level since 2019, with spending on AI and automation surging – BA alone has committed £100 million to such initiatives. The global AI market in aviation, currently valued at $1.6 billion, could reach $40.4 billion by 2033. *

Yet, commercial charter divisions are still drowning in manual email enquiries and handling bookings with pen-and-paper workflows.
Juuso Klemola, co-founder of myPlane, is calling out the disconnect: airlines are racing to automate their operations, but commercial charter sales – a €100 billion global market – remain largely untouched by digitalisation. “Many carriers are proudly announcing nine-figure AI investments that will help them optimise turnaround times down to the minute, but charter bookings are still being handled like it’s 1999.”

According to Juuso, there is a paradox at the heart of airline IT spending. “If you’re investing in advanced tech to unlock operational efficiencies across your scheduled operations, why keep one part of your business stuck in the past?

“Everyone talks about AI as the future of aviation, but if your charter requests live and die in your sales team’s inboxes, you’ve got nothing to feed the machine. No benchmarking, no optimisation. Airlines are flying blind in one of their most profitable verticals.”

The good news? It’s fixable, says Juuso. “Charter may not need the same level of IT investment as scheduled operations, but it’s long overdue for digitalisation. With reliable historical data and a centralised digital infrastructure in place, commercial charter could become a highly efficient and lucrative revenue stream for carriers.”