From Distribution to Operations: building the technology that mid-tier airlines need

Mid-tier airlines are held back by systems that don’t fit their size or operations. Starting with a distribution solution, CitizenPlane has grown into an integrated platform that aims to change that. After 2 acquisitions, what's next? Let's hear it from our CEO:

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When we founded CitizenPlane in 2018, we solved a structural issue in air travel distribution: helping tour operators sell flight inventory they couldn’t distribute online because they didn’t have access to GDS.

We built a platform connecting these tour operators with every potential buyer. The response was immediate and global. Within a few years, 1,200 tour operators across 80+ countries were using our platform, 6M flights in inventory, 120 OTAs booking actively. We also raised the interest of airlines, who started using our platform as a complementary distribution channel.

CitizenPlane had become the fastest way to publish seats online. In five minutes, you could create flights and make them available globally. We'd taken a complicated sector and made it simple.

From distribution to airline retailing 

As we grew, I kept returning to one observation: the airline industry was among the first to digitise, but it hasn’t really modernised since.

Today's systems are 30 years old. They still handle the basics well, ensuring that flights take off, seats are booked, and passengers can travel. But they are no longer fit for the world that airlines and passengers live in. Many airlines remain constrained by rigid systems built on fare-class logic, with limited room for personalisation and slow updates. At the same time, passengers expect more flexibility, real-time reactivity and full personalisation.

We'd proven we could simplify airline distribution. What if we could do the same for airline operations?

Airline operations are complex, so rebuilding from scratch wasn’t an option. We needed proven technology already used by airlines. In 2024, we acquired Travel Technology Interactive and its Passenger Service System, Zenith.

We quickly confirmed that mid-tier airlines are often held back by monolithic systems that don’t scale with them.

Zenith became the foundation of our Cloud Operating System, designed to give airlines more flexibility and control, with features built specifically for mid-tier airlines.

Enter Pulse RM

For our Offer module to truly deliver, we needed to enable dynamic pricing, real-time updates and advanced offer construction. The only way for us was to bring revenue management in-house.

As we did for Zenith, we looked for deep expertise and a live solution that we could start from. As many RM solutions operate like black boxes, we wanted a team that would share our vision of transparency, empowering airlines to develop their own strategy. Pulse offers contextual data, full transparency and it enables airlines to choose their level of automation freely.

What’s next for CitizenPlane

Today, we’re growing our cloud-based operating system with a deliberate focus on mid-tier and fast-growing airlines. 

Those carriers need more agile and cost-effective technology with dedicated support. They don’t have large teams and budgets. The gap between what airlines need and what traditional technology delivers is widening, and mid-tier cannot afford heavy workarounds and slow evolution.

The future of airline technology isn't about choosing between legacy and modern. It's about making both work together, enabling airlines to focus on their core activity: serving passengers, optimising revenue, growing their business.

So, if you're an airline struggling with limited IT solutions and critical ecosystem dependencies, and you want to modernise your systems, let's talk.