SITA Research Reveals Aviation's Record Technology Investment Depends on Data Coordination
New research from SITA highlights a critical challenge facing the global aviation industry: despite record-breaking technology investments, the full potential of these expenditures cannot be realized without improved data coordination across systems and partners.
Record Investment Meets Persistent Obstacle
The 2025 Air Transport IT Insights report from SITA reveals that the air transport industry invested an unprecedented $50.8 billion in technology during 2025. However, a consistent pattern emerges across artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digital identities and sustainability initiatives: where data fails to flow freely between systems and partners, investment cannot deliver its intended value.
"We are publishing this research at a moment when the industry is under significant pressure," said David Lavorel, CEO of SITA. "Across every area we measured, the same constraint emerges: where data does not flow freely across systems and partners, investment cannot fully deliver what it was designed to unlock."
Financial Implications of Data Fragmentation
The cost of data coordination gaps has become particularly significant amid ongoing global disruptions. Airlines committed $36 billion to technology in 2025, representing 3.6% of revenue, while airports increased their spending to $14.8 billion, accounting for 7.3% of revenue compared to 6.4% the previous year.
Operational reliability has become a direct driver of financial performance. Flight delays alone account for $30 billion of total industry revenue according to IATA data. Improving predictions and responses to disruption has become paramount, yet 49% of airlines identify data integration and consistency as the primary barrier to achieving this goal.
AI's Potential Limited by Data Alignment
Artificial intelligence stands to deliver maximum value when coordinating decisions across multiple systems simultaneously. While 63% of airlines now use AI in operations control to manage disruption, aircraft assignment and crew availability concurrently, significant limitations remain.
Only 17% of airlines use AI to monitor turnaround activity in real time, primarily because such decisions require consistent data from multiple partners. Airports are working to close this gap, with 53% now applying AI to aircraft turnaround compared to 36% in 2024.
Seventy-nine percent of airlines name generative AI and large language models as their top investment priority for the coming year, indicating ambition significantly outpaces current deployment capabilities.
Building Foundations for Future Resilience
Eighty-three percent of airlines and 89% of airports identify data-driven decision-making as a strategic priority, signaling the industry's recognition that operational resilience depends on building stronger data foundations. Forty-six percent of airlines are upgrading flight operations systems to make information consistent and accessible across flight, crew, aircraft and passenger systems in real time.
The goal is to provide operational teams with a shared picture that enables earlier intervention before isolated delays escalate into network-wide problems. When information remains fragmented across systems, the window for effective early intervention closes before it can be utilized.
Operators investing in closing data coordination gaps are establishing foundations that will outlast current disruptions, positioning themselves to emerge stronger from industry challenges.
