The unprecedented disruption to how we travel has created an urgent need to rethink transportation, accommodation, and hospitality. As industry standards and practices continue to evolve, there is an opportunity to incorporate technologies and methodologies that will define a new era of modern travel.
We help travel leaders develop global strategies that can evolve to meet shifting traveler tastes, focusing on building internal processes and capabilities that form a more sustainable business model. By integrating digital and analytical tools and adopting new ways of working, we’re helping travel companies build resiliency for the future.
Sectors we serve
Aviation
Provide broad-based support on operational, commercial, and service issues to more than half of the world’s top 25 airlines and many top maintenance and repair organizations, air cargo companies, and travel technology leaders.
Hospitality
Support hotel operators and owners, tour operators, food and beverage companies, resorts, and cruises, working with the largest hotel chains and travel operators in the United States, Europe, and China.
Passenger rail
Help railways create lasting value in a changing mobility market by optimizing routes and timetables, inventing lean maintenance concepts, applying digital workforce management, and transforming operations to gain new levels of customer satisfaction and financial efficiency.
Investors, governments, and technology companies
Support other market makers in the travel sector, advising on issues like private equity, portfolio optimization, tourism policy, economic development, and technology strategy.
What we do
Strategy and finance: Use proprietary tools to advise companies on how to position themselves to yield the best returns by testing, refining, and optimizing current business plans.
Commercial: Work with global leaders on revenue management, pricing, and sales, focusing not only on technical levers, but also on management infrastructure and people development.
Network: Model the impact of network changes and help provide insight into the value brought by alliances and joint venture decisions.
Operations: Increase cost-efficiency across all available levers, including third-party procurement, labor productivity, and product definition.
Advanced analytics: Translate data into actionable insights to drive additional sales uplift and third-party revenue while improving customer experience by anticipating needs.
Guest engagement: Improve digital journeys, digital marketing assets, channels, and campaigns and use loyalty and analytics to optimize guest engagement and life cycle value.
Sustainability: Identify paths to sustainable performance, evaluating factors like decarbonization levers and options in aviation fuel.
Service design: Advise on design research, product design and improvements, loyalty, needs segmentation, and customer service tracking—in both online and physical settings.
Featured experts
Nina Lind
PartnerMunich
Advises airline, travel, and technology companies on growth strategy and commercial topics, including partnership strategies,...
Wouter Maes
PartnerBeijing
Leads McKinsey’s Travel initiatives in Asia and QuantumBlack, an AI company by McKinsey, for Greater China
Jules Seeley
Senior PartnerBoston
Leads McKinsey’s work in the Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice and hospitality sectors, advising clients across logistics,...
Featured insights
Remapping travel with agentic AI
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Agentic AI could upend the travel industry. Travel and hospitality organizations should explore how agentic can help catalyze AI’s transformative potential.
Brilliant Moves: Coffee with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby
April 2, 2026 - As both companies enter their second centuries, Kirby and Sternfels discuss combining legacy scale with start-up energy—and a no-excuses mindset.
Report
The state of aviation
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Can the aviation industry soar to new heights, or will headwinds slow its progress?
Collection
The Next Normal – The future of airports: Seamless, automated, and personalized
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Airports have existed for more than a century. New technology could help revitalize their infrastructure—for both air travelers and airport staff. In this edition of The Next Normal, we examine how innovations such as AI, biometrics, and flying taxis could transform the airport experience.
Featured Case Study
How Lufthansa is using data to reduce costs and improve spend and carbon transparency
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Partnering with SAP, the airline developed a clear view of their data, integrating multiple sources from across their global business network. McKinsey’s Spendscape then provided a full understanding of procurement spend—and insights into Scope 3 emissions.
Related practices
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Growth, Marketing & Sales
Learn how we help companies across industries and geographies strengthen their marketing capabilities. We advise them on digital processes, analytics, pricing, channel and sales management, and branding.