On October 21, 2025, the annual Finass Business Travel Insights event took place at the SIX Convention Point in Zurich – the platform for Finass customers and partners to engage with the latest developments and trends in business travel. Under the motto “Innovation meets Practice,” participants enjoyed a varied program of exciting presentations, inspiring ideas, and valuable exchanges among industry professionals.
For the first time, the event was held under the new name Business Travel Insights this year under the leadership of Marc Brunner, Head of Business Travel. Once again this year, about 80 travel managers followed Finass’s invitation.
After the welcome address by Marc Brunner and an overview of the upcoming lectures, the afternoon kicked off with a highly topical issue:
Daniel Friedli, CEO of Travel in Motion AG, explored the revolution in airline distribution – a field currently undergoing changes driven by new technologies, data models, and sales structures. His central question “Opportunity or Challenge?” sparked lively discussions among the audience. Daniel Friedli showed attendees how airline distribution under the umbrella term “Modern Airline Retailing” is significantly changing with topics such as NDC, OneOrder, payment solutions, and digital IDs. While there are still various implementation challenges to overcome, Friedli also highlighted expected highlights, such as personalized and company-specific fares. These fares are designed to cater even better to the needs of both large and small corporate customers.
With Travel in Motion, countless airline customers are advised and supported in strategy development and implementation in this ever-changing environment.
Subsequently, Nico Castagna, Head of Digital & Experience at Zurich Airport AG, took participants on a journey into the future of traveler experience at the airport. Under the title “Ready for Take-off?” he demonstrated how the interplay of digital innovation, seamless customer journeys, and physical infrastructure will evolve over the coming years. Construction projects transforming the airport’s image over time include, among others, the replacement of Dock A, an expansion of the passport control hall, a partial renewal of the baggage sorting system, and the expansion of airport shopping. The retail and gastronomy offerings will be significantly expanded, and a new, light-flooded food hall will be built between parking garages P1 and P2. The airport is investing well over a billion Swiss francs for this.
Practical, networked, and digital
After a short networking break with a visit to the Business Travel Expo, the event continued with a panel discussion on the topic “Virtual Cards and Mobile Payment – How Will Business Travelers Pay Tomorrow?”.
Sebastian Suter, Senior Commercial Account Executive at VISA, kicked off this segment with a brief presentation on card payments, then and now. Following this, our CEO Adrian Matt moderated the discussion with Sebastian Suter and Robert Troy, Sales Commercial Cards & Strategic Channel Management at UBS Card Center. They discussed new payment methods with virtual credit cards, new and potential use cases, security aspects, and their effects on corporate processes.
In an era where almost everyone in their private lives already uses digital wallets from Apple or Google, using virtual cards for business travel is a logical step. Robert Troy also pointed out that the use of the “Virtual Smart Card” offers much more than just the payment function. Data such as cost centers, project numbers, event codes, and more can already be embedded during the card’s creation or use and seamlessly transferred to subsequent systems without additional effort.
To conclude the program, André Huber, known as The Brainman, captivated the audience with his presentation “Living Digitally – Thinking Analog.” With much humor, depth, and practical examples, he demonstrated the importance of not losing sight of human thought and action despite all the digitalization and artificial intelligence.
Exchange and inspiration during the Apéro
The afternoon was rounded off with an Apéro Riche, offered by Lufthansa Group, United Airlines, and Air Canada – an ideal opportunity to delve into what was heard, gather information from exhibitors, make new contacts, and exchange ideas with colleagues from the industry.
The Finass Business Travel Insights 2025 once again demonstrated how strongly the interplay of innovation and practice shapes the future of business travel. Themes such as digitalization, new distribution channels, and changing customer expectations are at the forefront – and this is precisely where Finass, with its commitment and its partners, steps in to accompany companies on their journey into the future of travel.
On behalf of TravelBrain, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Marc Brunner and the Finass team for the repeated invitation to the event. It is always a pleasure to actively help shape part of the event.
Adrian Matt for TravelBrain
Photos: Adrian Matt & Finass Reisen
