Customer Growth Index · IATA AGM Preview

The Aviation Digital Experience Gap

Up to $27bn left on the table each year by 2028

It's digital experience that wins or loses revenue. The Customer Growth Index (CGI) assesses speed, accessibility, booking flow and AI findability, all ranked against your competitors. Then we tell you what to fix and what it's worth.

CUSTOMER GROWTH INDEX · FOR THE INDUSTRY, BY THE INDUSTRY

Built by the authors of Aviation's New Flight Plan.

Raven's report on how experience, not efficiency, will power the next decade of flight is grounded in interviews with senior CX leaders across global aviation. The CGI operationalises that thesis into a single, comparable rating.

One score, four aspects of CX that win or lose bookings

Speed

Slow, clunky booking flows shed conversions on commodity routes.

Accessibility

1 in 5 travellers has a disability - a large, loyal, an underserved market. Accessible booking flows help you win it, and keeps you clear of the EU Accessibility Act, ADA, and UK Equality Act.

Booking flow

Where real friction costs you completed bookings.

AI findability

Whether AI assistants and meta-search can find, read and recommend you. Discovery is moving from search results to AI answers.

What you get

Your CGI score and rank in category.
The specific gaps behind it.
A prioritised list of fixes.
Revenue at stake, per fix.

Illustrative example

What it's worth: a worked example

Meridian Air scores Critical on accessibility - its booking flow fails with a screen reader. With ~1 in 5 travellers having a disability, recovering even a small share of lost bookings is worth, on £400m of digital bookings, up to an estimated £12–18m a year - before the loyalty and legal upside.

Illustrative; Meridian Air is fictional.

Ranked against the carriers you actually compete with

An LCC shouldn't be judged against a flag carrier. We benchmark you only within your business model.

Illustrative example · Meridian Air vs European low-cost carriers
Carrier	Rank in type	CGI score /100	Speed	Accessibility	Booking flow	AI findability
Meridian Air(your airline)	3rd of 3	48	Poor	Critical	Poor	Average
Northwind	1st of 3	86	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Good
Solara	2nd of 3	79	Good	Good	Average	Good

100 = a perfect score: no revenue lost to digital experience. 'Meridian Air', 'Northwind' and 'Solara' are fictional; scores are placeholders.

Why it matters

Lost revenue

CX leaders see +6–8% EBITDA within three years and retain customers 30% better (McKinsey).

Growth through inclusion

An accessible booking flow wins an underserved, high-value market - and keeps you legally clear (EU Accessibility Act, ADA, UK Equality Act).

Ground lost to peers

A customer comparing you with a category rival picks whoever loads faster, has simpler journeys and is easier to trust. Falling behind compounds.

Three tiers, rising depth

The Index

The Scan

Free for IATA members · Automated

CGI score ranked against your category; plain-English read on every measure; prioritised quick wins; confidence rating on every score.

Tier 02

Analyst Review

Paid · Raven analyst

Human judgement on what the scan can't see; screen-reader and real booking-flow testing; is the friction real and what it's costing; fixes prioritised by impact and effort.

Tier 03

Distribution Review

Bespoke · Industry expert

Why deeper revenue leaks (price, trust, channel mix); how your NDC and distribution setup helps or hurts; wrestling control back from the OTAs; what's controllable and what to restructure.

The people behind the index

Industry-leading aviation expertise, working alongside the sector's data and standards partners.

Cirium - data partner
IATA AGM context
Senior CX leader network
Inclusive Growth Index methodology
Pythia rating engine

Dr Conor Farrington

Index & Methodology Lead

Dr Conor Farrington designed the methodology behind Raven's customer growth and inclusive growth indices, including the scoring framework that blends automated scanning with expert human review. He is the author of Raven's Inclusive Growth Index strategy and the developer of the Pythia digital health rating engine that powers the CGI's automated speed, accessibility and web vitals analysis. A former Chief of Staff at aerospace startup SATAVIA (acquired by GE Aerospace in 2024), Dr Farrington is also a Policy Consultant at the Aviation Impact Accelerator/Whittle Lab, University of Cambridge.

Louise Croft Baker

Experience Director

Louise Croft Baker is Experience Director at Raven and the author of Aviation's New Flight Plan, Raven's report on the future of airline customer experience. She leads Raven's work helping organisations turn customer experience into a measurable growth engine, drawing on interviews with senior CX leaders across the global aviation industry.

With more than 20 years' experience in customer experience strategy and transformation, Louise has worked with leading travel brands including TUI, eDreams, Expedia, Hotels.com and Cirium. She holds a PhD in Psychology and is a regular speaker, judge and advisor on customer experience, digital transformation and the future of travel.

Justin Cooke

Strategic Advisor

Justin Cooke is a digital transformation specialist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker and board advisor with nearly 30 years' experience helping travel, destination and aviation brands grow through technology. Since 1997, he has worked with IAG, NetJets, Expedia, Small Luxury Hotels of the World and Europcar, advising on digital strategy, customer experience, e-commerce, loyalty, data and AI.

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