Velocity 2019

Welcome to the 2019 edition of VELOCITY, Oliver Wyman’s Journal of Travel, Transport and Logistics.

The mobility sector is likely to see as much change in the next decade as it confronted in the last 100 years — a time when cars were mass-produced for the first time, commercial aviation was born, and humans traveled to the Moon. New transportation technologies will not only change how we move ourselves and our things but also how we live. Over the next 10 years, the global economy can expect the arrival of the first fully autonomous vehicles, the mainstreaming of electric cars and trucks, the advent of hyperloops, and the commercialization of drone transport for goods and eventually people. And those are the innovations we know about.

VELOCITY  is dedicated to understanding this future. In the 2019 journal, our articles explore the increasing role of Chinese innovation in mobility, the hurdles to commercial drone transport, and how aviation hybrids can bring electrification to aircraft and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They also examine the planet’s increasing congestion problems with articles on why cities need passenger rail and how airlines can cope with increasing gridlock in the sky and in airports. Other pieces include one on how airlines are moving back into maintenance, why home delivery may die, the squeeze on carrier margins, and the need for rail cyber resiliency. There is also a special travel section that examines everything from pressure on online travel agencies to biometric identification to why travelers are increasingly hard to please, even as travel companies try to woo them with personalized offers.