The aviation industry’s most important conference starts tomorrow (Tuesday, 26 January), offering all airport stakeholders – owners, operators, airlines, governments, safety authorities, etc – a dedicated online platform to network, connect, learn and share the latest ideas, strategies and technologies to rebuild passenger confidence and reenergise the air travel sector.
The free-to-attend, three-day Passenger Terminal CONFERENCE Virtual ‘Live’ (January 26, 27, 28, 2021) will see more than 100 expert speakers explore the best strategies to navigate the fallout from the biggest health crisis in more than a century, and identify a host of new opportunities to completely reimagine the passenger experience.
Under the tagline ‘Around The World In A Covid Haze’, dedicated sessions across the three days will include: Adapting Commercial Offerings – Road to Recovery; Journey 2.0: The Great Passenger Experience Reset; CEO Forum – Airport Coping Strategies in a Covid World; Airport Design, Planning & Development Today; Securing Air Travel – Now and in the Future; Covid-19 and Airport Environment: Impact and Opportunities; Passenger Experience and Confidence; and Security, Safety & Covid-19 – Beating the Bugs.
Participants can expect a highly rewarding and insightful exchange of ideas, with live interaction and networking fully enabled and encouraged during the event, which takes place online for maximum convenience. Here are just a few of the highlights in store:
Re-engineering airport hospitality in the recovery of air travel
Jonathan Song, global business development director of Hong Kong’s Plaza Premium Group will highlight how travel has changed in light of the pandemic. Although air travel will recover, consumer behavior has shifted entirely and will continue to evolve, he will argue. Airport hospitality is even more fundamental during this recovery period as travelers require more support and reassurance. It is crucial for service providers to be observant, agile and innovative in service offerings to shape the new age of travel as it becomes more complex, according to Song. He will show how, with the emergence of new customer segments, industry players must consider key factors in travel and be ready for business transformation such as digitization and partnerships to revive the industry.
Rethinking passenger experience at BLR Airport in a post-Covid world
Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB or BLR Airport), has been working on developing contactless and biometric boarding solutions as part of its digital transformation efforts. As part of these developments, Satyaki Raghunath, chief strategy and development officer at Bangalore International Airport will explain how the team at BIAL have worked extensively on building passenger confidence in flying again in the post-Covid world through the extensive adoption of digital/contactless travel solutions.
Reducing the Covid risk for passengers and airport staff
As part of the ‘Totally Touchless’ session on Tuesday, January 26, 14:00 GMT, Abhi Chacko, head of innovation and commercial IT services at London Gatwick, will cover a number of ideas that are being trialed or implemented at the airport to reduce the Covid risk for passengers and staff. This will cover a UV tunnel for tray disinfection, touchless biometric journey, automatic baggage belt allocation, a restaurant booking solution and bingo boarding. Abi will also take part in a live discussion that will conclude the session.
The Covid opportunity: a new planning and operating framework
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, airports are under pressure to minimize capital investments, reduce operating costs and use their infrastructure and resources more efficiently. Additionally, this crisis has made the traditional planning approach – which relies on historical data – no longer relevant, according to Anna Fantoni, senior airport planner and operations specialist at NACO. Airport managers have to increasingly rely on new data sources, break down organizational silos, and develop strategic partnerships with airlines, government agencies and other stakeholders. This presentation outlines an agile planning and operating framework to address short- to medium-term challenges where the focus is on scenario testing, new data sources, efficiency and flexibility, and sustainable financial performance.
Will the current aviation security framework survive Covid-19?
Sars-Cov2 is, without contest, the most efficient terrorist ever. Nothing else has ever been capable of forcing authorities to ground aircraft and close significant portions of the economy for months or lock down a large part of humanity for weeks. The usual threat and risk models – from assessment to risk avoidance, risk mitigation, risk transfer and risk tolerance – seem to have been replaced by a new zero-tolerance or principle of precaution model. How will aviation survive without safety and security risks? How can aviation security principles and pillars even adopt a zero-tolerance model? Is aviation security even needed after Covid-19? Matt Vaughan, director of aviation security and cyber at IATA, will share his thoughts during the ‘Securing Air Travel – Now and in the Future’ session.
Click here to view the full program and speaker list; and register – for FREE – now!