About
The Top Of Descent is an independent publication on commercial aviation strategy and marketing.
It tracks airlines’ moves in brand, loyalty, distribution, product, and pricing, and reads them for what they say about where the industry is heading. Not every announcement is news. The interesting ones reveal a choice: which traveller a carrier wants to keep, which one it is willing to lose, and what it is betting on next.
Why “The Top Of Descent”
In aviation, the top of descent is the point where an aircraft leaves its cruising altitude and begins its descent towards the destination. It is not a place on a map but a calculated point. The flight management system works it out from the cruising altitude, the altitude to be reached, the planned rate of descent and the speed over the ground, so that the descent begins neither too early nor too late. Pilots check it with a simple rule of thumb: roughly three nautical miles for every thousand feet to lose.
It is a quiet moment. Nothing visible changes in the cabin, and most passengers never notice it. From that point on, the destination is no longer a plan: the aircraft is committed to it.
That is the moment this publication looks for in the airline industry: when a strategy stops being a plan and starts moving toward an outcome, often before anyone outside the cockpit notices. Hence the tagline: where the signal starts, before the story does.
What we cover
Signals. Early moves in airline marketing, reported as they happen, with a short read on why they matter.
Forecasts. Where the signals point. Each forecast carries a confidence level and a date when it can be checked.
Cargo. Air cargo strategy and the commercial logic behind it.
Ground Game. Rail, road and intermodal transport, with a focus on Italy, read for what they reveal about aviation’s competition and its next moves.
How we work
Every analysis follows the same method.
- Signal. A verifiable fact: an announcement, a hire, a filing, a number in an earnings release.
- Historical pattern. When the industry has seen something similar before, and how it played out.
- Forecast. What we expect to happen next, stated specifically enough to be checked.
- Confidence. How sure we are, and why.
Confidence comes in three levels. High means the forecast rests on commitments already made or constraints that are hard to change. Medium means the direction is clear, but timing or scale depends on decisions not yet public. Low means a plausible reading worth stating, with real room to be wrong.
Every forecast has a resolution date. When it arrives, we mark the forecast Correct, Partly correct, or Missed, with a short note on what happened. Missed forecasts stay published. A track record matters only if it includes the misses.
Editorial standards
- Primary sources first: company releases, filings, earnings materials and on-the-record statements. Secondary reporting is credited.
- Every article lists its sources in full, in alphabetical order, and links to the main brand’s media centre.
- Figures taken from agency case studies or vendor material are traced to a primary source or clearly attributed as reported.
- Corrections are made openly: the article is updated, and a dated note explains what changed.
The editor
Daniele Raina, a Milan-based marketing and communications professional with more than ten years of experience across education and technology, edits The Top Of Descent and holds IATA certification in Air Cargo and Air Cargo Marketing. The publication grew out of a daily airline marketing briefing first published on LinkedIn.