Digital Travel Credentials will smooth the journey from boarding to Butterfly Farm.

In the three decades he’s been with SITA, Sumesh Patel, who was appointed president, Asia Pacific, in 2017, has seen all that’s evolved in airline and airport technologies, and he remains as impassioned about the field as when he started as a field engineer all those years ago.

In fact, he’s even more excited now because today, he says, the shift is being driven by the consumer unlike in the past when the technology was driven more by operational efficiencies. The shift, which had been happening silently, accelerated during the pandemic when consumer adoption of tech shot to all-time highs, in all aspects of life and business.

“Everything we do now, we try and keep the end consumer in mind and ultimately bring efficiencies to airlines and airports,” says Patel.

“For example, when we look at a technology now, we don’t look at just airlines and airports in isolation but it’s now multi-modal, to create a seamless experience across every touchpoint, and give consumers control over what they do on their mobile.”

Patel’s three decades with SITA, a 75-year entity founded in 1949 by 11 airlines who wanted an organization to help with their IT needs, have been full of change. “I suppose some people might wonder why stay with one organization for 30 years, but every two to three years, I was given a new role which had nothing to do with the previous role, so I was always learning.”

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