This year the conference was held on March 28-31 in Istanbul, Turkey and brought together over 100 airline representatives and agency managers.
The official partners of the conference were TCH (Transport Clearing House) and Nemo.Travel.
In her opening speech to participants, Marina Volodina, Deputy General Director for Commercial Activity, Commercial Director of Sirena, noted: "Today, more than ever, increasing the level of technological security, including information security, is a paramount task, especially for Civil Aviation. In the face of ongoing sanctions pressure on Russia's aviation industry and the disconnection of domestic airlines from inventory and distribution systems by foreign providers, Russian carriers, including the national carrier, have successfully migrated and incorporated domestic digital products into their operations in 2022. At the same time, migration to domestic software took place in an unprecedentedly short period of time and in the complete absence of support from Western providers.
As a result of the transition, information security and protection of passenger and crew personal data and the independence of passenger operations from foreign systems, possible failures and outages were ensured. The Russian airline industry has shown resilience - not what the sanctions were intended to do."
During the business part of the programme new algorithms from new airlines and their impact on agency sales were presented to the participants.
TCH's Commercial Director Tatyana Merkulova discussed with the participants the trends and tendencies on the passenger travel market in the Russian Federation in spring 2023.
Vladimir Kalyapin, Director of IT Services Project Implementation at Sirena Travel, talked to Sirena Connect participants about content and distribution of railway transportation in the period of sanctions pressure.
Innokenty Baskakov, Deputy Director of Product Developmentof Sirena, spoke online about new opportunities for all participants of the air travel industry - about MixVel platform, which provides content distribution in accordance with new technologies and standards. The ability of travel platform MixVel to form a multibasket, and provide travelers not only with "mixed" airline content, but also with content from different carriers: air, rail, and bus became a real discovery for travel industry professionals.
An important part of the programme were face-to-face meetings between the participants, colleagues were able to discuss pressing issues and details of further cooperation with Sirena.
Excursion trips to Topkapı Palace, Cisterns Şerifiye and a visit to Hagia Sophia Cathedral were a pleasant addition to the business programme.
The participants noted the content of the business programme of Sirena Connect conference, its practical utility for the organisation of business processes and distribution system in the tourism industry in the context of market adaptation to the ongoing sanctions pressure. In their opinion, the Sirena Connect conference has long been a serious discussion platform for dialogue for all professionals of the aviation and travel industries.