Blog Series: Why Airlines Are the Hardest Customers in Technology
Series Introduction
A polished pitch deck and a strong ROI number can get you a meeting with an airline. They rarely get you a contract. This conversation is about that gap, and what actually closes it.
Our panel walks through why airlines move slowly on technology even when the business case looks strong, what separates a vendor from a true partner in the eyes of airline leadership, and why the most technically elegant solution in the room is rarely the one that wins. Airlines aren't slow because they're behind on technology. They're slow because a failed rollout doesn't stay internal. It becomes a delayed flight, a long line at the gate, or a headline by morning, so the cost of getting it wrong is simply higher here than in most industries.
Ask any technology executive who has tried to sell into an airline and you'll hear some version of the same story: a strong pitch, genuine interest in the room, and then months of nothing closing. Most people chalk this up to bureaucracy or risk aversion. The executives we spoke with see something more specific.
Airlines run on decades-old infrastructure that newer systems have to work around. Every dollar of technology spend is competing against dozens of other priorities pulling on the same limited budget. And because customers sit inside the operation itself, there's almost no room for a quiet failure.
That doesn't make airlines closed to innovation. It makes the bar for getting taken seriously different, and most providers never clear it because they're solving the wrong problem.
We sat down with three executives who have spent their careers on the buying side of that equation, with Jim Barry moderating:
Jill Surdek, who spent 20 years at American Airlines leading teams across revenue management, customer experience, and airport operations, and later headed Amazon Logistics' Central Division.
Bridget Blaise-Shamai, a commercial strategy executive with deep experience in data, AI, loyalty, and digital partnerships, who has advised aviation, rail, and fintech companies on growth.
Patrick O'Keeffe, a longtime American Airlines leader who ran some of the airline's largest technology and business transformation programs.
What follows is their take on what actually gets a technology company in the door, and what gets it shown back out.
We're publishing this discussion as a three-part series:
Part 1: Why Airlines Are Structurally Hard to Sell To - 12:00 PM ET on June 30th, 2026
Part 2: Getting in the Door, and Getting Adopted -12:00 PM ET on July 1st, 2026
Part 3: AI, Governance, and the One-Hour Pitch -12:00 PM ET on July 2nd, 2026
