India, June 22 -- When most of us think about aviation technology, the images that come to mind are physical: jet engines, cockpit instruments, control towers, radar.

Semiconductors seldom make the list! Yet, the small chips few travelers ever see, have quietly become one of the most important foundations of modern air travel, not only inside the aircraft, but across every system that decides how a flight is searched, sold, changed, and experienced. That is the part of the semiconductor story that often goes untold. Beyond avionics, decades of progress in chip design have reshaped the business of flying itself.

From rigid fares to real-time retailing

For a long time, buying an airline ticket was a rigid affair. Fares were fixed in adva...