The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. What was United Airlines thinking with its Polaris business class? It’s a question I asked in a story,United CEO Munoz’s Polaris Promise Never Matched Reality.

Event technology has helped revolutionize the process of planning a meeting along with the experience for attendees. The space is crowded with competing products and platforms, however, adding an additional layer of complexity for planners. In our new Event Tech Evolution Interview Series, we’re talking to leaders at the companies defining the future of the event technology space with an eye on the trends and disruptions to come. You can read all of the articles in the series here.

With its new Polaris business class service, United Airlines has learned a powerful lesson: Sometimes, in the airline business, simple is best. Polaris had considerable promise in June 2016 when United CEO Oscar Munoz took the stage at a New York theater to describe a complete re-thinking of business class. Over a multi-year period, United would introduce a proprietary all-aisle access seat and build dedicated lounges in key markets.

Russia’s been in the news a lot lately —just not the travel news. Normally, year-end “best of” annual travel lists – like Lonely Planet’s enduring Best in Travel series or the New York Times’ 52 Places to Go – give extra weight to destinations celebrating big anniversaries or hosting major world events. Both put Canada’s 150th birthday at No.

The big news that American Express Global Business Travel wants to acquire Hogg Robinson Group is still resonating across the industry. The combined company would have the largest transaction volume of any travel management company in the world, catapulting it up into the level below consumer booking giants Expedia Inc. and Priceline Group. In my analysis below, you can find out what this means for the rest of the industry.

Last year was very, very bad for Norwegian Air. The airline swung from a pre-tax profit of $194 million in 2016 to a loss of $137 million in 2017. “We are not at all satisfied with the 2017 results,” CEO Bjorn Kjos said earlier this week. Despite operating since the early 2000s, Norwegian is still acting like a start-up: burning lots of cash on an aggressive expansion plan with the hope of achieving sufficient scale later.

The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. You have to credit Vasu Raja, American’s vice president for planning, for declining to engage with a competitor.

At a typical consumer-facing company, members of the product team might be the all stars. They design cool gadgets with the newest technology, and if their creations sell well, the company succeeds. Product teams are important at airlines, too. They design new seats and lounges, scour the world for food and wine, and source soft goods like pillows and blankets. But they don’t necessarily make a carrier tick.

The era of the smart home is upon us. But how far are we from the era of the smart hotel? Technology companies and hotel brands alike are working to crack the various problems that come with bringing innovations like voice control into the hospitality environment at scale. There are many challenges, like meeting the needs of hotel owners and grappling with the limitations of consumer technology, that are still being worked out.

Here at Skift,the team has been working hard to make our 2018 events the best they’ve ever been, and today we’re so excited to announce a revamped website experience for our Skift Forums! Fully optimized for mobile, you’ll be able to easily navigate from any device, anywhere. With a new look and feel, it’ll be easier than ever to read up on the latest Skift event updates.