Reimagining Airline Back Office

An all-in-one admin that lets airline staff set up the entire sales journey in minutes, not days.

Role

Lead Product Designer

team

Partnered with a Product Manager

Timeline

10 months (Apr. 2024 - Jan. 2025)

I transformed two disconnected systems into a unified platform that cut setup time by 83% and won Airline Partner’s approval — all before a line of code was written.

PO Admin

(Web Shop)

PO Admin

(Web Shop)

PO Admin

(Web Shop)

A gradient color fill for the Aioli Admin circle

Aioli Admin

(Unified Admin)

A gradient color fill for the Aioli Admin circle

Aioli Admin

(Unified Admin)

A gradient color fill for the Aioli Admin circle

Aioli Admin

(Unified Admin)

MC Admin

(Crew App)

MC Admin

(Crew App)

MC Admin

(Crew App)

Mockup of Aioli admin portal displayed on desktop monitor, showing product catalog with food and beverage items in a clean office environment.
Mockup of Aioli admin portal displayed on desktop monitor, showing product catalog with food and beverage items in a clean office environment.
Mockup of Aioli admin portal displayed on desktop monitor, showing product catalog with food and beverage items in a clean office environment.

Overview

Selling products in flight, from snacks to duty free, requires a back office system to set up every detail: product names, prices, stock, and the complex rules around airline retail.

For years, our internal team managed these setups using two outdated tools, one for the passenger web shop and one for the crew app.

They didn’t connect, forcing duplicate work, frequent errors, and long delays whenever airlines needed changes.

As our vision shifted toward empowering airline staff to manage their own catalogs, and as new business models emerged after our Connected Cabin launch, these legacy systems could no longer keep up.

Selling products in flight, from snacks to duty free, requires a back office system to set up every detail: product names, prices, stock, and the complex rules around airline retail.

For years, our internal team managed these setups using two outdated tools, one for the passenger web shop and one for the crew app.

They didn’t connect, forcing duplicate work, frequent errors, and long delays whenever airlines needed changes.

As our vision shifted toward empowering airline staff to manage their own catalogs — and as new business models emerged after our Connected Cabin launch — these legacy systems could no longer keep up.

Selling products in flight, from snacks to duty free, requires a back office system to set up every detail: product names, prices, stock, and the complex rules around airline retail.

For years, our internal team managed these setups using two outdated tools, one for the passenger web shop and one for the crew app.

They didn’t connect, forcing duplicate work, frequent errors, and long delays whenever airlines needed changes.

As our vision shifted toward empowering airline staff to manage their own catalogs — and as new business models emerged after our Connected Cabin launch — these legacy systems could no longer keep up.

Outdated badge configuration form with dropdowns, text fields, and manual SVG file upload interface.
Outdated badge configuration form with dropdowns, text fields, and manual SVG file upload interface.

From Internal Setup to Airline Empowerment

A vision shaped by pressure

The technical goal was clear: one modern admin. But the real vision came from the push and pull of different stakeholders:

Airline partners demanded flexibility: 

Premium passengers get one free snack, meal, and drink — then start paying.

Airline partners demanded flexibility: 

Premium passengers get one free snack, meal, and drink — then start paying.

Internal ops teams needed efficiency:

We want to schedule next quarter’s menu and trust it goes live on time.

Internal ops teams needed efficiency:

We want to schedule next quarter’s menu and trust it goes live on time.

Product leadership wanted scalability:

Morning's flight need breakfast menu, but flight after 10 a.m needs a lunch & dinner menu.

Product leadership wanted scalability:

Morning's flight need breakfast menu, but flight after 10 a.m needs a lunch & dinner menu.

This tension reframed the problem: we weren't not just merging tools into one screen. We had to design a backbone resilient enough to absorb unpredictable business logic.

The puzzles we had to solve

Starting from a blank slate meant anything felt possible — and without structure, every stakeholder pushed for their own version of the “right path.” Together with the Product Manager, my job was to keep that from spiraling into feature chaos.

I ran workshops to align priorities, shadowed the configuration team to capture real bottlenecks, and pulled proven patterns from POS and e-commerce systems. From these inputs, I distilled design principles and primary use cases to test how modular rules could translate to aviation.

This process turned competing demands into a foundation we could actually build on — and set the stage for the layered system that followed.

Solution: a system of layers

The breakthrough was simple: separate what you sell from how and where you sell it. By decoupling products from rules and flight targets, the design replaced tangled one-off logic with a modular framework.

This layered model kept daily tasks straightforward for configuration teams, while giving airlines the flexibility to handle edge cases and leadership the scalability to grow. Complexity stayed in the system — not on the end users.

Aioli's core idea is simple: separate what you sell from how and where you sell it. By decoupling products from rules and flight targets, the design replaces tangled one-off logic with a structure that is flexible and future-ready.

This layered model adapts to new business scenarios, stays intuitive for daily use, and scales with partner demands — absorbing complexity without passing it down to users.

Aioli's core idea is simple: separate what you sell from how and where you sell it. By decoupling products from rules and flight targets, the design replaces tangled one-off logic with a structure that is flexible and future-ready.

This layered model adapts to new business scenarios, stays intuitive for daily use, and scales with partner demands — absorbing complexity without passing it down to users.

Diagram of Aioli system architecture: Products and Combos as content inputs, Catalogs applying business rules, and Flight Plans executing assignments.
Diagram of Aioli system architecture: Products and Combos as content inputs, Catalogs applying business rules, and Flight Plans executing assignments.

Product (the atom)

At the core of Aioli is a unified product definition. A user sets up an item once — coffee, snack, or duty-free — and that single source flows across every channel.

Beyond the basics, each product carries attributes that shape how it behaves: whether it can be complimented, if seat numbers are required at checkout, if legal age confirmation applies, or if purchase limits should cap quantity.

This structured logic eliminates mismatches that plagued the old system and ensures integrity from day one. It adapts to any item type, from physical goods to virtual services, giving airlines confidence that every product rule is enforced consistently.

Product Bundles (the combos)

Airline menus rely heavily on combos to drive sales, yet legacy admin tools couldn’t even support them. Aioli closed that gap by letting teams bundle existing products into any combination they need and treat them as a single item across all channels.

This flexibility gives airlines a powerful tool to cross-sell or launch meal deals in minutes. Instead of waiting on engineering or rigid templates, teams can create dynamic offers that boost revenue and adapt to evolving business cases.

  • Aioli combo builder interface with drag-and-drop products, allowing creation of bundled meal offers.
  • Aioli combo editor showing required choice groups for drinks and snacks within a breakfast sandwich trio.

Catalog (the configuration)

Once products and combos are created, they’re grouped into catalogs — the control center for pricing and distribution. Base prices live at the product level, so teams don’t waste time redefining them.

What catalogs unlock is efficient customization. Instead of creating separate catalogs for each class or channel, a team can configure one economy catalog and apply overrides for premium economy, or set mobile app prices lower than in-flight sales.

This hierarchy keeps setup lean while giving airlines the flexibility to tailor offers by cabin or channel — all without duplicate work or messy workarounds.

  • Aioli catalog management dashboard listing seasonal and class-based catalogs with targets, product counts, and last modified dates.
  • Step 1 of Aioli catalog setup wizard with catalog name, description, and cabin class and sales channel targeting options.
  • Modern Aioli catalog pricing interface showing product list with base prices and override price buttons.
  • Spreadsheet-style bulk price override view in Aioli, enabling side-by-side editing of product prices across channels.

Flight Plan (the orchestration)

Finally, catalogs are assigned to flight plans, completing the loop. Teams can target flights not just by route or flight number, but also by origin, destination, time of day, or day of week — with complex include and exclude logic.

On top of targeting, flight plans define inventory. Teams can set stock levels per item and even distribute quantities by cabin class, ensuring premium cabins never run out while economy avoids overstock.

For example, a catalog might apply to all YYZ–YVR flights except flight 777 on Thursdays, with 20 meals reserved for business and 80 for economy. This precision turns messy scheduling and stocking rules into a streamlined, automated workflow.

  • Step 1 of Aioli flight plan setup wizard with name, schedule, flight targets, and shop hours configuration.
  • Step 1 of Aioli flight plan setup wizard with name, schedule, flight targets, and shop hours configuration.
  • Aioli flight plan editor with advanced targeting filters including route, airports, destinations, flight numbers, time of day, and day of week.
  • Aioli interface for setting onboard item quantities, showing meal and drink options with distribution across Economy and Premium Economy cabins.

Impact beyond the build

Although implementation paused during restructuring, the design became the blueprint for future development. Configuration teams confirmed the projected 83% reduction in setup time in Beta testing.

A key airline partner asked, “This is exactly what we need. When can this go live?” and a Senior Product Manager called it “the best, cleanest, most sophisticated design we’ve seen.”

This project demonstrates how I use design to influence strategy, earn stakeholder trust, and deliver measurable value well before launch.

Though implementation paused during restructuring, the design became the blueprint for the product’s future. Configuration teams validated the projected 50% time savings.

A key airline partner asked, “This is exactly what we need. When can this go live?” and a senior PM called it “the best, cleanest, most sophisticated design we’ve seen.”

This project shows how I use design to shape strategy, win trust, and create measurable value before launch.

Though implementation paused during restructuring, the design became the blueprint for the product’s future. Configuration teams validated the projected 50% time savings.

A key airline partner asked, “This is exactly what we need. When can this go live?” and a senior PM called it “the best, cleanest, most sophisticated design we’ve seen.”

This project shows how I use design to shape strategy, win trust, and create measurable value before launch.

See next

Traval Retail: Connected Cabin

See next

Traval Retail: Connected Cabin

See next

Traval Retail: Connected Cabin