Airline · Travel Technology · Revenue Systems
20 years at Navitaire, Chief Operating Officer on exit. Then COO of Kambr by Amadeus. ULCC and LCC reservations, revenue management, airport systems, API integration, and migrations that could not be allowed to fail.
Airlines are the most operationally unforgiving business there is. Margins are thin enough that a rounding error is a quarter. Everything is live, all the time, in every time zone. A booking engine that goes down doesn't generate a support ticket, it strands people in terminals.
I spent my career inside that. Not advising it. Running it.
If you build or sell technology into airlines, airports, or travel, I've been on both sides of the table you're sitting at.
Ultra low-cost and low-cost carriers run a fundamentally different model: ancillary-driven revenue, brutal cost discipline, and no tolerance for system overhead. I supported those carriers directly through reservations, ancillary, and distribution platforms.
As COO of Kambr by Amadeus I ran operations for airline revenue management technology. Pricing, forecasting, and inventory optimization, delivered to carriers who measure the result in basis points.
Check-in, departure control, and the operational integrations that connect a carrier to the airports it flies into. High-visibility systems where downtime is measured in stranded passengers.
Distribution APIs, payment integrations, partner connections, and the long tail of carrier-specific interfaces. I've owned integration roadmaps where a hundred partners depend on one release window.
Passenger service system cutovers and platform migrations, the kind that get one shot and cannot be rolled back cleanly. I've led these end to end, including the ones that went sideways.
$10M-plus programs with teams split across continents. Local teams in Utah and global teams in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, delivering against carrier commitments with fixed dates.
Travel technology companies selling into carriers, where implementation cycles are long, every customer wants something bespoke, and delivery is quietly eating your margin.
Airlines and airport operators running a technology program that has slipped, or evaluating a platform decision they can't reverse.
Investors and boards who need someone who can read an airline technology business honestly, including the parts management is optimistic about.
Startups entering travel who are about to discover that selling to airlines is nothing like selling to anyone else.
No. Most of my fractional COO work is with SMB and mid-market companies outside travel. But the airline background is why the operational judgement holds up. If you've run delivery for carriers, a $10M professional services firm is a manageable problem.
Fractional COO engagements start at $5,000 a month. For a scoped diagnosis first, the $999 Expert Audit gives you a written assessment and a 90-day roadmap within 48 hours of the intake call.
Yes. Competitive Intelligence engagements cover 3, 7, or 12 competitors with an operational action plan, starting at $1,500. For a single company or counterparty, an Intelligence Brief is $397 in 48 hours.
If it's an airline technology problem, you won't have to explain the context first.
