Trip.com Group and Lufthansa Group support smarter distribution, richer content and seamless service | Focus
At ITB Berlin 2026, James Spalding, Regional Director of Flights for Northern Europe and North America at Trip.com Group, and Jimena Boé, Head of Global Online Partners Management at Lufthansa Grouptold Breaking Travel News that the future of flight distribution will be shaped by shorter booking windows, better content, stronger collaboration and a sharper focus on customer satisfaction.
James Spalding, Regional Director Flights, Trip.com Group & Jimena Boé, Head of Global Online Partners Management, Lufthansa Group talk to Breaking Travel News at ITB Berlin 2026.
As airlines and online travel platforms look ahead to 2026, both Trip.com Group and Lufthansa Group say the signals they are most watching are becoming clearer. For Lufthansa, this means monitoring how demand is developing against the broader market, closely monitoring booking windows, destination trends and growing demand for premium travel. As Boé put it, the aviation group is watching “booking window, destination trends, but also preferences for comfort while traveling, looking for higher cabins and premium products.”
On the OTA side, Spalding says the same shift is visible in customer behavior, especially around what time travelers are now willing to book. “We also see that demand is shortening the booking period,” he said, adding that summer booking windows are shrinking “from 31 days and even lower.” At the same time, he pointed to strong demand for long-haul flights, noting that intercontinental traffic remains a priority as new routes come online.
An important theme in the conversation was that distribution is no longer just about reach. For Lufthansa Group, success depends on how well the product is presented, not just where it appears. Boo said: “Scale is no longer a mission, so it’s more a revenue quality issue, it’s more a display quality issue.” She added that the focus is on ensuring the airline’s enhanced product offering is clearly communicated, from branded fares to cabin upgrades and seat maps. “Our goal is to be excellent in presentation.”
Spalding agreed, emphasizing that strong partnerships only work when the technology foundation is in place. “If you get the basics right from a technology perspective, you can scale,” he said. From there, there is the opportunity to give travelers “the right message… at the right time,” creating clarity without clutter. This means aligning airline priorities with the platform’s presentation so that passengers can make informed decisions faster and with more confidence.
That trust, both directors suggested, increasingly depends on flexibility and transparency. Boé said what helps customers most is “maintaining customer peace of mind” and ensuring they “get the best deal and the right decision with all the information available.” Spalding echoed that, saying Trip.com wants to ensure customers have choice, but in a way that remains simple: “It gets the right information at the right time and can then make an informed decision.”
The discussion also highlighted how more valuable travel choices are becoming central to the customer experience. During peak booking periods, Spalding says Trip.com works to tailor airline campaigns and promotions to what travelers are actually trying to achieve, whether that’s a beach holiday or an international long-haul trip. The role of the platform is not only to drive the initial booking, but also to later support customers with upgrades, bags and products at the destination. “Do we have the ability to upgrade them, to add a bag to some of the accessories?” he said. “At the same time, how can we support them when they get to their destination?”
For Lufthansa Group, fare families and branded fares remain a big part of making those choices more understandable. Boé said the airline has worked extensively to bundle and clearly present the right features, including when flexibility, seat selection and baggage are included. Spalding said the role of the platform is to make that information comparable and easily digestible, while at the same time showing what differentiates Lufthansa Group from competitors. Rich content is an increasingly important part of that effort. Boé pointed out how new cabin images are now displayed in the Trip.com app, saying: “This is what we call rich content, and it’s great that this has been translated… it really brings it to life.”
Another key takeaway from the interview was that neither company now views the customer journey as ending at the point of purchase. Spalding said Trip.com looks beyond search and booking to the full lifecycle of a trip, including the days before departure, airport navigation, destination support and changes or cancellations later. “We don’t just look at the search and booking process, we think about it… from start to finish.” he said. The goal is to make passengers feel like they are getting “a complete Trip.com experience” that matches what the airline has to offer.
Boé said alignment depends on close coordination behind the scenes so that the traveler experiences one seamless journey, even if multiple systems and partners are involved. “The passengers don’t need to know what’s happening behind the scenes,” she said. What matters is that reports, fault handling and communication arrive through the right channels and at the right time.
When asked what good collaboration looks like in practice, both pointed to a combination of commercial coordination, technical development and service automation. Boé said both parties are focusing on the necessary development “in the areas of service and automation,” while Spalding described two parallel priorities: optimizing daily performance and identifying joint sales and promotional opportunities. As a global OTA, he says, Trip.com wants to “complement your strategy and bring you travelers from different markets.”
Looking ahead, both executives see more opportunities across the entire customer journey, but especially in customer service, discovery and distribution modernization. Spalding said the focus is on ensuring passengers get “the best of both worlds”, not just during the search, but throughout the entire travel experience. Boé added that Lufthansa Group relies on partners like Trip.com to help communicate new routes and inspire customers with new destinations, citing the recently announced Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur service as an example.
By 2026 and 2027, both companies expect that great flight distribution will be defined by more automation, more self-service, richer additional content and further advances in NDC. Boé said Lufthansa Group is “on the road together… for automation, for self-service, for auxiliary companies, for distribution” and also wants to enable more content and interline content with online partners. For Spalding, however, the ultimate benchmark will remain the same: “Ultimately the benchmark will be customer satisfaction.”
That was perhaps the clearest message to emerge from the interview. In the next phase of aviation distribution, scale alone will not be enough. What matters most is how clearly the product is presented, how smoothly the journey is delivered and how well airline and platform partners work together to make travel feel simpler, smarter and more connected.
