They are not likely to become the Wai-Marts or Amazon.coms of the skies, but airlines appear poised to make a much bigger move into retailing thanks to a convergence of necessity and opportunity.rnAirlines could turn inflight WiFi into a sales tool, and more carriers will give consumers the ability to customize packages of airline, hotel, car rental and tour bookings. Ancillary revenue raisers on the horizon for potentially widespread adoption by airlines include inflight sales of rail passes, attraction tickets, mobile phone minutes and even flower delivery orders. Based on information provided by customers at booking or as part of frequent-flier membership, carriers could also make targeted sales of products and services.rnThis retailing concept certainly is nothing new to low-cost carriers such as Ryanair in Europe, Spirit Airlines in the U.S. and Air Asia in Asia.
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