From Airline Boom to Traveller Control: How the Airline Industry Changed
Published August 2026
I entered the airline industry in the late 1990s, at a time when aviation felt very different from what we know today.
It was an exciting period. Airlines were expanding their networks, advertising expenditure was high, and competition was intense. Global airline alliances were also beginning to reshape the industry. Star Alliance launched in 1997, with Thai Airways among its five founding members, followed by oneworld in 1999 and SkyTeam in 2000.
I spent seven years with Northwest Airlines, working across many areas of marketing—from advertising and publications to events, sponsorships, sales promotions, CSR activities and ticket giveaways at various functions.
Airlines were highly visible advertisers. Marketing was very much about building the airline brand, promoting destinations and convincing travellers to choose you over the competition.
When Airlines Had More Control
The way people planned travel was also very different.
Travel agents played an important role, especially in Thailand. Group tours were still a major part of outbound travel, while FIT—or Free Independent Travel—was growing but had not become as dominant as it is today.
The US market was somewhat different. Many Thai travellers had relatives studying or living in America, so visiting friends and relatives was already an important segment. The student market was also strong, particularly for long-haul travel between Thailand and the United States.
Back then, convenience often came before finding the absolute cheapest fare.
Travellers relied heavily on airlines and travel agents for schedules, connections, ticketing and information. There were no travel influencers shaping demand overnight, and online travel agencies had not yet become the powerful marketplaces they are today.
But change was already beginning.
When Booking Started Moving Online
Online booking began emerging during my years in the industry. Northwest was among the airlines adapting to digital services, and we were learning how the internet could change the relationship between airlines and passengers.
Being able to search and eventually purchase travel online may seem ordinary today, but at the time it represented a fundamental shift.
For decades, airlines and travel agents controlled much of the information travellers needed. Digital technology gradually transferred that information—and eventually much of the decision-making power—to the traveller.
Airline alliances were expanding at the same time. They allowed airlines to offer wider networks, shared frequent-flyer benefits and easier connections without having to operate every route themselves.
Then came a series of shocks.
The September 11 attacks severely affected international aviation, followed by SARS in 2003, which hit travel in Asia particularly hard. Airlines became increasingly focused on efficiency, costs, partnerships and survival.
Mergers, codesharing and consolidation became more visible across the industry. Cost cutting and layoffs were difficult realities for many airline employees.
Meanwhile, another transformation was gathering speed.
OTAs, Smartphones and the Rise of the Independent Traveller
Online travel agencies grew. Metasearch platforms made comparing fares easier. Low-cost carriers expanded across Asia. Smartphones eventually put schedules, fares, boarding passes, maps and destination information directly into travellers’ hands.
Then social media changed destination discovery again.
Today, someone can discover a place through Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, compare several airlines within minutes, check reviews, find accommodation and organise much of the journey independently.
This represents an enormous transfer of power.
In the 1990s, airlines controlled much of the journey to purchase. Today, travellers control it.
Airlines therefore have to work much harder to pull customers towards their brands while trying to retain existing passengers through frequent-flyer programmes, personalised offers, partnerships, lounges and increasingly sophisticated digital ecosystems.
Price transparency has made loyalty more difficult as well. A traveller may prefer one airline, but when several alternatives appear side by side on the same screen, schedule, price and convenience can quickly change the decision.
Then Came COVID
If SARS was one of the major shocks during my time in the airline industry, COVID-19 was on an entirely different scale.
Borders closed, aircraft were grounded and international travel almost stopped.
Yet COVID did not completely change the direction the airline industry was already heading.
By then, airlines had lived through SARS, economic downturns, fuel-price volatility and years of intense competition. Cost control, careful capacity management, partnerships and digital distribution were already part of how airlines operated. COVID pushed all of these to an extreme, but it did not create them.
What changed more noticeably was the traveller.
After being unable to travel for so long, people returned with greater awareness of how quickly plans could change. Flexibility, cancellation policies, travel insurance and the reliability of connections became more important considerations.
Travellers also became more cautious about where they went, how they travelled and what restrictions might come with a booking.
And there is an interesting contradiction.
Travellers today have more choice and more information than ever before, but an extremely cheap ticket can still lock us into an inconvenient journey. A lower fare may mean an awkward departure time, a long connection, restrictive baggage rules or little flexibility when plans change.
So while technology has given travellers greater control, having more choices does not necessarily make choosing easier.
FIT Has Become the Normal Way to Travel
Another major change I have witnessed is the rise of independent travel.
Group tours certainly remain important, particularly for destinations that are more difficult to navigate, culturally unfamiliar or require complicated transportation. But travellers today have far more tools to organise trips themselves.
Maps, translation apps, ride-hailing services, online hotel booking, restaurant reviews and digital payments have removed many of the barriers that once made independent travel intimidating.
The traveller no longer needs an airline or travel agent to explain the destination.
Instead, airlines have become one component within a much larger digital travel ecosystem.
What Hasn’t Changed
After watching the industry from the inside and then spending many years travelling as a passenger, I think one thing remains surprisingly constant.
People still want convenience.
Technology has made fares much easier to compare, and price undoubtedly matters. But the cheapest ticket is not always the best journey.
Flight schedules, connections, baggage, seat comfort, airport experience, reliability, flexibility and service still influence our choices.
Perhaps we have almost come full circle.
In the late 1990s, convenience often mattered more than getting the absolute lowest fare. The digital era made price comparison incredibly easy and gave travellers access to choices we could hardly have imagined then. COVID reminded us that flexibility and confidence also carry value.
When I entered the airline industry, airlines had much more influence over what travellers saw, where they bought and sometimes even how they travelled.
Today, that power increasingly sits in the traveller’s hand—quite literally, on the phone.
No But after all these changes, one lesson remains: the cheapest way to travel is not always the journey we want to take.
