Ancillary | Digital Transformation | FTE Event News | Up in the Air // Nov 2026
As airlines look to unlock new commercial opportunities while delivering increasingly personalised passenger experiences, the cabin is emerging as an important part of the wider retail ecosystem. Advances in technology, connectivity and data analytics are enabling carriers to move beyond traditional onboard sales towards more relevant, real-time interactions that strengthen customer engagement and generate measurable business value. However, turning these opportunities into a seamless experience requires airlines to connect onboard and ground-based platforms, understand passenger preferences and balance personalisation with privacy and trust. In this interview, ahead of his participation at APEX FTE EXPO (Singapore, 18-19 November 2026), Ekrem Dimbiloglu, Managing Director, Onboard Strategy & Experience, Delta Air Lines, shares how Delta Sync is helping to transform the onboard experience through connected content, personalised offers and an expanding partner ecosystem. He also explores how airlines can use customer insights to make personalisation feel genuinely valuable, create a more seamless experience across the entire journey, and unlock new opportunities for ancillary revenue while keeping customer trust and human connection at the heart of innovation.
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Delta Sync: Turning onboard personalisation into commercial opportunity
Intelligent retail ecosystems have transformed the cabin into a data-driven revenue engine. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies, airlines are providing personalised, real-time offers – from mid-flight seat upgrades to curated dining – based on passenger behaviour and loyalty status. Supported by connectivity partners, these platforms are synchronising airborne and ground systems for seamless, contactless payments. This equilibrium between commercial precision and ethical data governance ensures cabin time is no longer a lost opportunity, but a quantifiable contributor to ancillary revenue and passenger loyalty.
At APEX FTE EXPO, taking place in Singapore on 18 to 19 November 2026 – Ekrem Dimbiloglu, Managing Director, Onboard Strategy & Experience, Delta Air Lines, is participating in a key session focused on ‘The cabin as a growth engine: How personalisation and retail innovation have created measurable value at altitude’.
“I’m looking forward to sharing how our investment in Delta Sync has helped unlock new opportunities to enhance the customer experience while creating value for the business,” says Dimbiloglu. “By enabling a more personalised and connected journey, Delta Sync has given us deeper insight into customer preferences and strengthened our ability to establish a partner ecosystem to expand onboard choice. The platform serves as an important foundation for bringing together content, products and partner benefits in ways that help customers tailor their experience and make each journey feel more personal every time they step onto a Delta airplane.”
Making personalisation feel seamless, relevant and intuitive
Personalisation is becoming an increasingly important part of the traveller experience. Leading airlines are using passenger insights and technology to deliver more relevant, timely onboard offers while ensuring the experience feels helpful rather than intrusive.
“The best personalisation doesn’t feel intrusive to your experience – it feels useful,” Dimbiloglu explains. “SkyMiles helps us understand our customers, and Delta Sync gives us an opportunity to translate that understanding into a better experience onboard, whether that’s recognising you when you sit down, surfacing entertainment you’re likely to enjoy or giving you the right information at the right moment. The goal is ultimately to make the experience feel increasingly like it was designed for you.”
The integration of onboard and ground-based systems is incredibly important in enabling a more seamless retail experience, particularly when it comes to connectivity, payment and delivering a consistent customer experience across different touchpoints.
“Customers don’t experience Delta as a collection of channels or platforms – they experience one journey,” Dimbiloglu shares. “Our opportunity is to make the technology feel just as connected, whether a customer is planning a trip, moving through the airport, sitting onboard or navigating an unexpected disruption. At Delta, we want technology to work quietly in the background to remove friction and make travel feel more intuitive, personalised and seamless. That requires connecting the data and experiences across the journey so that context can travel with the customer rather than forcing the customer to start over at every touchpoint. Customers shouldn’t have to understand how our systems connect. They should simply feel that Delta knows where they are in their journey and makes the next step easier. Everything from connectivity, payments, offers and servicing should ultimately feel like parts of the same Delta experience.”
Balancing personalisation, privacy and customer trust
As airlines explore AI-driven personalisation and more sophisticated uses of passenger data, it is vital to balance commercial opportunities with privacy, transparency and customer trust. “At Delta, our safety culture shapes how we approach AI, privacy and customer data,” says Dimbiloglu. “We see a huge opportunity to make travel more personal and seamless, but trust has to be at the centre of it. We need to be transparent and responsible in how we use data, and no matter how technology evolves, Delta people will always be what makes the experience uniquely Delta.”
Dimbiloglu adds that Delta thinks about success much more broadly than a single transaction. “Are customers engaging? Are they discovering content, experiences or offers they value? Is the experience making their journey better? Ultimately, Delta Sync gives us another opportunity to strengthen the relationship customers have with Delta and SkyMiles by making the onboard experience increasingly relevant to them.”
APEX FTE EXPO:“Engage with the partners who help drive innovation across the travel experience”
Looking ahead, Dimbiloglu is eager to participate at APEX FTE EXPO, taking place in Singapore on 18 to 19 November 2026. “One of the things I enjoy most about our industry is that while it operates on a truly global scale, it remains a close-knit community built around connecting people. Events like APEX FTE EXPO provide valuable opportunities to exchange ideas, learn from peers and engage with the partners who help drive innovation across the travel experience. I’m particularly looking forward to the thought leadership sessions to hear how others are approaching innovation and bringing some of those insights back to Atlanta with me to Delta.”
Turning onboard innovation into lasting customer value
As airlines look to unlock the full commercial potential of the cabin, the opportunity extends far beyond generating additional ancillary revenue. By combining customer insights, connectivity and intelligent technology, carriers can create more personalised, relevant and seamless onboard experiences that strengthen passenger engagement while delivering measurable business value. However, realising this potential depends on understanding what customers genuinely value, connecting experiences across the entire journey and ensuring that the use of personal data remains transparent, responsible and grounded in trust. The challenge is to make technology work quietly in the background, removing friction and anticipating passenger needs without making the experience feel overly commercial or intrusive.
As Dimbiloglu’s insights demonstrate, platforms such as Delta Sync can play an important role in bringing together personalisation, onboard content, products and partner benefits to create a more connected customer experience. The wider opportunity for the industry lies in moving beyond individual transactions towards building lasting customer relationships, where commercial innovation and passenger experience reinforce one another. These themes will be explored at APEX FTE EXPO, taking place in Singapore on 18-19 November 2026, where airline leaders, technology providers and industry partners will come together to share ideas and examine the innovations shaping the future of travel. For organisations looking to transform onboard retail, unlock new revenue opportunities and deliver more personalised passenger journeys, the event will provide a valuable platform for collaboration, knowledge-sharing and discovering what comes next.
What’s next – APEX FTE EXPO, Singapore, 18 to 19 November 2026
Register for APEX FTE EXPO – free Premium Passes for airlines and airports >>See the APEX FTE EXPO Agenda Overview >>See the 13 reasons to attend APEX FTE EXPO >>
