Trip.com AGC 2026: AI wave demands quality, interoperability, and governance of data
The aviation industry was urged to work on improving its data quality and collaborate more as the “incredible wave” of Artificial Intelligence is poised to hit.
Filip Filipov, chief executive of OAG, told the Trip.com Airline Global Conference in Amsterdam this week that the problem the sector has is data fragmentation.
He warned that poor data percolates across the industry rapidly and that this will cause more issues when the era of AI facilitates the transition of data.
Filipov gave the example of when a transatlantic flight on a regional turboprop aircraft was accidentally loaded on to systems.
Before the error could be rectified the flight was on the GDSs, being sold by travel agencies, and was being displayed on metasearch sites.
“One single data point that was wrong actually made sure that there was quite a bit of havoc created over time and through the systems.
“Imagine when AI is enabling this insane search, booking, cancellations at an agentic level, those mistakes will percolate a lot faster, and they will affect our industry a lot more.
“And that’s not just the plane, not just the schedule, not just the fare. You folks are all dealing with crew, with gates, with cancellations, with payments, with credit cards.”
Filipov said given the sheer size and scale of the aviation industry means it must make sure that the data it puts into AI and agentic platforms is reliable.
“The problem that we have, I believe, in our industry is not that the data is broken on its own. It’s actually that it’s not connected. It is fragmented.
“We’re not sharing it with each other, even if somebody who is a station manager at a particular airport can see one part of it, the rest of the organisation doesn’t.
“And that’s why today, I really want to stress what’s important for us as an industry, as a group of people who share the same vision that air and aviation is a force for good.
“We need to really think about the data quality and the interconnectedness that we have in the industry to empower that incredible wave of AI that is headed our way.”
Filipov added: “I’m sure a lot of you actually care about the quality of the information that you have.
“But I cannot stress this enough for us to have an incredible AI future, we need to have the right quality information throughout all of the systems.
“If we don’t, this is going to be a problem. Rubbish in, rubbish out. Whatever you put in the models, no matter how amazing they are…is going to result into the outcome.
“The [AI] models are going to be good and strong, but they’re not necessarily going to lead to amazing results just on their own.
“Data quality is incredibly, incredibly important. We need to make sure that this information is spread out across the industry and across us as partners.
“The third thing, which I believe is fundamentally important is governance. I urge you not to just blindly give your data to any kind of model because you don’t control it.
“You need to be in a position where you actually govern the information that is within your systems and within the industry. So governance is a critical part.
“Once out there, there is no way for you to recoup it. So quality, interoperability, and governance.”
Filipov said the number of data points the airline industry deals will not achieve its goals if stakeholders work in isolation.
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