Who owns the passenger? Airports vs airlines

Two businesses, one customer

The airline sells the flight and usually holds the digital relationship with the passenger before the trip. The airport manages hours of their experience and earns a growing share of its revenue from parking, retail, food and beverage, lounges or fast track. Both compete and collaborate at the same time for the attention and spend of the same customer.

The World Aviation Festival 2026 asks the question directly in the panel "Who owns the passenger & captures the value — and are airports and airlines ready for co-ownership?", alongside sessions on non-aero revenue, the digital airport with mobile and AI assistance, and designing the passenger journey together.

What is at stake

Non-aeronautical revenue

Parking, fast track, lounges and retail can be sold before the trip, while the customer is planning. Whoever owns the digital channel at that moment captures the sale.

Data and relationship

The airline knows the booking and profile; the airport knows behaviour in the terminal. Neither has the full picture alone, and both need a single customer view to personalise.

Perceived experience

Queues, boarding information, baggage incidents or connections affect perception of both brands, even if only one is responsible.

Three relationship models

• Competition: each party sells its services separately; customers receive duplicate messages and disconnected offers.

• Cross-distribution: the airline sells airport services in its direct channel, or vice versa, with revenue sharing.

• Co-ownership of the journey: shared data and experience under explicit agreements, with a single point of contact for the passenger.

How to move towards collaboration

1. Identify the products with the highest joint value. Parking, fast track, lounges and connection services are usually the first candidates, as in selling the rest of the trip through the order.

2. Agree on data sharing and consent. What is shared, on what legal basis and for which uses.

3. Integrate the offer in the channel with the strongest relationship. Usually the airline app before the trip and the airport channel in the terminal.

4. Define the economic model. Commission, revenue share or service agreements with common metrics.

5. Measure the impact on the passenger. Satisfaction, processing time and spend per passenger across the whole trip.

A lesson for any service business

The same tension appears between hotels and experience platforms, banks and merchants, or insurers and distributors. A service business's ecommerce strategy must decide where it wants the direct relationship and where collaboration pays off.

Conclusion

The question of who owns the passenger has no single answer, but it has a clear consequence: whoever does not ask it will let someone else answer it. Airports and airlines that agree on what they sell together, which data they share and who manages each moment of the trip will capture more value and deliver a more coherent experience.

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