· Who is gaining control when airlines are rebuilding payments architecture for new retail models, airlines, payment providers or emerging fintech?

· As payment stacks become more complex, are airlines gaining flexibility or simply managing more moving parts?

· Local acquiring, FX exposure and regulation vary by market. How do airlines balance global scale with local optimisation?

· Does adding more payment options improve conversion, or simply move complexity downstream into reconciliation and treasury operations?

· What data and visibility do airlines need from PSPs and partners to manage payments commercially

• As AI agents begin influencing how travellers search, shop and transact, who ultimately controls checkout and payment steering?
• Will tools like smarter routing, automated retries and payment recovery genuinely improve approval rates – or introduce new fraud risks?
• What guardrails and oversight frameworks are needed when machines begin making financial decisions?
• Loyalty and customer trust sit at the centre of airline commerce. How do airlines protect both if AI systems optimise purely for price or speed?
• What’s real in the next 12–18 months versus hype, where are airlines investing today?

• Orchestration platforms are expanding beyond payments into loyalty and wider fintech infrastructure. Are airlines gaining flexibility – or introducing new platform dependencies?
• How are airlines balancing cost, approval rates, fraud signals and settlement timing when routing payments?
• Approval optimisation: domestic acquiring, network tokens, SCA strategies and retries – what’s actually moving the needle?
• When disruption hits, where do payment systems still break down across booking, servicing and refund flows?
• Should airlines build orchestration internally or rely on external platforms – and what trade-offs exist between speed, control and complexity?

• Which alternative payment methods actually deliver measurable conversion uplift versus added cost and complexity?
• BNPL reality check: is it becoming a meaningful revenue lever for airlines, or still uneven in adoption?
• “Local wins” in global networks: how do airlines enable regional payment options without fragmenting checkout and reconciliation?
• More payment choice improves flexibility but complicates operations. How do airlines balance speed, fraud protection and compliance?
• As payments evolve, could embedded finance and payment partnerships unlock new airline revenue streams?