In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers opens with a quick conversation with Skift’s airlines editor Gordon Smith to break down the real story behind Breeze Airways, and why most people misunderstand what the airline actually is.

Then we roll into Gordon’s on-stage session from the Skift Aviation Forum in December 2025 with Breeze founder and CEO David Neeleman. Neeleman walks through Breeze’s thesis of connecting overlooked secondary cities to major leisure hubs, shares his view on how hard it is for new airline challengers to survive today, and delivers a moment that lit up the room with his take on sustainable aviation fuel.

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In this Skift Take Sessions episode, Wil Slickers opens with a quick conversation with Dennis Schaal to break down what mattered most from Skift Global Forum, before we roll the full on-stage session featuring Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in conversation with Skift CEO Rafat Ali at Skift Global Forum.

Wil and Dennis tee up the two storylines listeners should watch closely: Airbnb’s push into services and experiences, plus the bigger strategic play around hotels, and Chesky’s belief that AI will turn travel search into “matching,” not just a chatbot. Then Chesky explains how Airbnb is thinking about the next interface for trip planning and what that shift means for marketplaces trying to own the customer journey.

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Want to access the full video of these sessions? Become a ⁠Skift Pro Subscriber⁠ today!

We'd love to see you at our next ⁠Live Skift⁠ event! Learn more ⁠here⁠ to see where and when you can see these sessions in-person with other industry leaders just like you!

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Southwest Airlines is rewriting its identity, and the story is bigger than “assigned seating” and “bags fly free.”

To kick off the first episode of Skift Take Sessions, Wil Slickers sits down with Skift airlines reporter Meghna Maharishi for a quick pre-session breakdown of why these changes are happening now, including activist pressure from Elliott Investment Management and the post-pandemic shift toward premium demand.

Then we roll into a live session from the Skift Aviation Forum in December 2025, where Tom Doxey lays out the transformation in plain terms: assigned seating, extra legroom, bag fees, basic economy, free Wi-Fi, new destinations, and what it all means for Southwest’s margins in 2026. Moderated by Brian Sumers.

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We'd love to see you at our next Live Skift event! Learn more here to see where and when you can see these sessions in-person with other industry leaders just like you!

Connect with Skift

Skift Take Sessions is a new weekly podcast for anyone who wants to understand how the global travel industry really works.

In this trailer, host Wil Slickers introduces the show and explains what listeners can expect each week — candid, journalist-led conversations with CEOs and senior leaders across airlines, hotels, and travel platforms, recorded live at Skift events.

Rather than headlines or press releases, Skift Take Sessions focuses on how decisions are made, how companies compete, and what these conversations tell us about where travel is headed next. You’ll hear directly from leaders at companies like Hilton, Expedia Group, Booking Holdings, Airbnb, JetBlue, and more.

If you’re new to Skift or new to travel business podcasts, this trailer is the best place to start.