- Amazon Web Services, Head, Worldwide Business Development - Travel, Transportation & Logistics, Massimo Morin
- Mezi, Vice President, Global Travel Strategy & Partnerships, Johnny Thorsen
- Social Data Lab, Director, Andreas Weigend
- Air China, Vice President & General Manager, North America, Zhihang Chi
- DVB Bank SE, Senior Vice President Aviation Financial Consultancy, Albert Muntane Casanova
- Flybe, CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener
- Pittsburgh International Airport, CEO, Christina Cassotis
- airBaltic, Chairman of the Board & CEO, Martin Gauss
- Finnair, CCO, Juha Jarvinen
- Kenya Airways, Group Managing Director & CEO, Sebastian Mikosz
- KLM, President & CEO, Pieter Elbers
- Amadeus IT Group, Global Head, Amadeus Loyalty, Dominic Matthews
- CityJet, CEO, Patrick Byrne
- Finnair, CCO, Juha Jarvinen
- Datalex, CEO, Aidan Brogan
- Ryanair, COO, Peter Bellew
- Skyscanner, Senior Director, Global Strategic Partnerships, Hugh Aitken
- Travelport, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Air Commerce, Derek Sharp
- Croon Callaghan Aviation Consulting, Partner, Jim Callaghan
- European Aviation Club, Chairman, Rigas Doganis
- European Commission, Director General for Mobility and Transport, Henrik Hololei
- IAG, CEO, Willie Walsh
- Google, Global Travel & Expense Lead, Michael Tangney
- Lufthansa Group, Head of Distribution, Xavier Lagardère
- Winding Tree, Founder & COO, Pedro Renaud Anderson
- WTMC, Founder & CEO, Sarosh Waghmar
- Belfast City Airport, Chief Executive, Brian Ambrose
- Eurowings, CCO, Oliver Wagner
- ForwardKeys, CEO, Olivier Jager
- VietJet Air, Member of Board of Directors, Cuong Chu
- What are the barriers to achieving significant cost reductions in legacy airlines?
- What are the preferred strategy options for preparing for a lower cost competitive environment in future
- How effective are LCC subsidiaries and what factors determine their success or failure?
- Managing an FSC-led “group” of multi-segment airlines is complex; for example, aside from the potential cannibalisation, managing brand perception in codesharing and partnerships can raise significant issues. What are the secrets for success?
- AACO, Secretary General, Abdul Wahab Teffaha
- AAPA, Director General, Andrew Herdman
- Amedeo, CEO, Mark Lapidus
- Eurowings, CCO, Oliver Wagner
- IAG, CEO, Willie Walsh
THURSDAY 17 MAY 2018 | ||
08:00 | Registration, Networking & Coffee | |
09:00 | Chairman's Welcome | |
09:05 | Host Welcome Dublin Airport, Managing Director, Vincent Harrison Irish Government, Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Minister Shane Ross |
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09:15 | CAPA Industry Outlook CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Executive Chairman, Peter Harbison |
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09:35 | Keynote: Who provides the data, who collects it - and who knows how to use it? We begin with a keynote address from author of "Data for the People: : How to Make Our Post-Privacy Economy Work for You" and Director of the Social Data Lab: "My expertise is the future of big data, social-mobile technologies, and consumer behavior. I study people and the data they create. In today's increasingly digitized world, consumers share data in unprecedented ways. This Social Data Revolution represents a deep shift in how people make purchasing and lifestyle choices." Social Data Lab, Director, Andreas Weigend |
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10:15 | Panel: Who provides the data, who collects it - and who knows how to use it? Data has become about a lot more than collecting information that your own customers provide you. Every step we take, every move we make is contributing to massive databases that provide the basis for a level of transparency that we could not have dreamt of as recently as a couple of decades ago. This is in many ways fearsome, as much of our business structuring has been built around an absence of transparency, allowing some form of manipulation of the customer. But, as airlines - and their suppliers - seek to open up new distribution avenues that share key information, the ubiquity of data is beginning to threaten, to disrupt the existing system on a much broader scale. Let's build the history and try to project where things are going. Moderator: Aviation Strategy & Concepts, Managing Director, Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus Panel: |
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10:55 | CAPA Membership Presentation CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Senior Account Manager, Marianne Cummins |
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11:00 | Coffee Break & Networking Hosted By ![]() |
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11:30 | Panel: Making money (and savings) from alliances and partnerships Constrained by ownership and control rules established 70 years ago as a protectionist mechanism, in some ways the airline industry has progressed little – while technical advances have been phenomenal. As airlines cannot operate freely around the world, but need network benefits to succeed, global alliances were established as multilateral extensions of the many bilateral partnerships that existed widely. Much has changed since the Star Alliance began, to be followed by oneworld and SkyTeam. Where the global alliances have provided an umbrella for closed and immunised JVs, so also have deep bilateral partnerships across Alliance boundaries created new models. And Ultra long haul aircraft, the internet, metasearch, long haul low cost airlines and cross border equity relationships are just some of the fundamental leaders of change.The global alliances are designed to stimulate the financial reach of airlines, but they also have a role in reducing costs. Although they may be becoming peripheral to closer bilateral partnerships, there is still an important role for them – especially for their core members. Moderator: AAPA, Director General, Andrew Herdman Panel: |
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12:15 | Airlink Presentation Airlink, President & CEO, Steven Smith |
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12:20 | Lunch Break & Networking | |
13:20 | Keynote: The paradox of social media: balancing between opportunities and burden KLM, President & CEO, Pieter Elbers |
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13:45 | Panel: Social media is sexy. Making money from it is getting harder Marketing has taken on many new faces over the past decade. Classical media advertising still has a role to play, but instead of being front and centre, it is now becoming almost niche. Consumers rely increasingly on digital sources for their everyday information and social media influencers dominate decision making. So it becomes increasingly necessary for airlines to channel resources into getting in the mix of those behavioural patterns. But it needs clear, sensitive and flexible strategies. Moderator: Skylight Aviation, Senior Advisor and former easyJet Group Strategy & Network Director, Cath Lynn Panel: |
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14:25 | Keynote: The FFP Trinity: data, loot and loyalty: Using data to generate revenue FFP Investment & Advisory, Managing Partner, On Point Loyalty, Evert de Boer |
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14:40 | Panel: The FFP Trinity: data, loot and loyalty: Using data to generate revenue Ever since Air Canada first floated the concept of combining loyalty with using the FFP entity as a revenue centre in its own right, there has been an uneasy and highly dynamic equilibrium between maximising income and generating loyalty. Later came the recognition that there was intrinsic value in the intimate data that passengers delivered - even those whose loyalty was limited at best. Today, any FFP that does not maximise the benefits from analysing and applying the data it gathers is falling short of its potential. Finding partners who can expand datasets and help in the analytics process is increasingly a must. Moderator: FFP Investment & Advisory, Managing Partner, On Point Loyalty, Evert de Boer Panel: |
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15:25 | Coffee Break & Networking | |
15:55 | Keynote: Evolving distribution systems. Where are we up to? Rich content, NDC and more Travelport, Global Head of Product & Marketing, Air Commerce, Ian Heywood |
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16:10 | Panel: Evolving distribution systems. Where are we up to? Rich content, NDC and more Everyone’s keen to expand reach and leverage revenue, ancillary or otherwise. Achieving optimum value is an elusive and constantly shifting goal, as new competitive entities arrive in the market, both at the operating level and using tech to find smarter new ways of doing business. Creating a bridge between traditional and future systems, where many – often uncomfortable – bedfellows must coexist is vital to medium term success. Moderator: Mezi, Vice President, Global Travel Strategy & Partnerships, Johnny Thorsen Panel: |
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16:45 | Special Vision: 2030 – What will the Travel Digital Ecosystem look like; and the opportunities it presents: This Keynote presentation consists of two parts: Section A (Kenny Jacobs): The Amazon of Travel: Distribution – flight and non-flight; Apps; Content: to inspire and help; and Google & Search Section B (Bobby Healy): What the Future holds: Conversational commerce; Artificial Intelligence; China is the new world tech leader; Payment: how we pay; Augmented/Virtual reality; NDC and one order; Uber in the air; and Alexa & AI Ryanair, CMO, Kenny Jacobs & CarTrawler, CTO, Bobby Healy |
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17:30 | End of Day 1 Sessions | |
19:00 | Powerscourt CEO Dinner Debate: Is Open Skies Closed for Business? Hosted By ![]() |
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FRIDAY 18 MAY 2018 | ||
08:00 | Registration, Networking & Coffee | |
09:00 | Chairman's Welcome | |
09:05 | Panel: Trapped in the geriatric framework. The outlook for Europe and the North Atlantic as Brexit looms While sales and distribution seem to have no territorial boundaries, the actual operation of airlines remains trapped in the archaic design of 70 years ago. The constraints of the bilateral system are a massive constraint on airlines' ability to make truly commercial decisions.Open skies is a chink in that armour, albeit perhaps a diminishing one, but nothing illustrates the shortcomings of the system better than the tremors created by Brexit. Despite the uncertainty created, the UK remains one of the world's key aviation markets and will now be forced into a transition to an as yet unknown set of bilateral and multilateral relationships.Negotiating a package with the multiple interests of the EU countries is one thing; recreating a complex North Atlantic multilateral is another. An array of innovations has been enabled by the freedom created by both the Single Market and the US-EU multilateral, many of them strenuously opposed by US and other pilots unions, so disruption is clearly on the cards. Moderator: John Byerly, Consultant, Principal, John Byerly Panel: |
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09:50 | Keynote: The “new entrants”: Blockchain, Winding Tree, data miners and a host of apps Mezi, Vice President, Global Travel Strategy & Partnerships, Johnny Thorsen |
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10:10 | Panel: The “new entrants”: Blockchain, Winding Tree, data miners and a host of apps Literally tens of thousands of travel related apps are under development and fundamentally new forms of transacting business are emerging. Combining that with the growing effectiveness of artificial intelligence adds another dimension to the equation. Then add to that the proliferation of large web based entities like Amazon, google, Facebook, Alibaba and others who have massive potential for data mining across the travel spectrum. Coming to grips with the new potential and how all of these might fit together offers myriad opportunities. However, sorting out what is important and sustainable is key to making the right executive decisions. Moderator: Mezi, Vice President, Global Travel Strategy & Partnerships, Johnny Thorsen Panel: |
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10:55 | Coffee Break & Networking | |
11:25 | Panel: Airports and airlines sharing data to enhance market penetration (make more money) and customer satisfaction. A pipedream? When it comes to cooperation, airports and airlines typically revolve in separate hemispheres, colliding only when discussions turn to charges and "who owns the passenger". Yet each of them collect enormously valuable granular data about customer behaviour that they can only maximise if they combine it with the other. There are visionaries on both sides who see the opportunities, but mutual suspicion mostly prevails. Moderator: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Executive Chairman, Peter Harbison Panel: |
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12:00 | The cost equation: cutting costs and strategies for competing with low cost carriers Underlying cost is necessarily a key part of an airline’s revenue outcome. Maintaining cost discipline is a complex art. It is made more difficult by the fluctuations in uncontrollable input costs such as fuel, but every full service airline is continually seeking to reduce costs by 3 to 4% per annum.This continually raises the bar – or lowers it. The fact that fuel prices slumped over the past three years has in many cases reduced the intensity of management determination to cut every cost possible. The resulting 10-20% reductions in cost thanks to lower input costs tended to make marginal attempts appear futile, in turn making it harder to persuade employees to accept frugality. As fuel prices rise again, the need to regain cost discipline becomes imperative; but only so much can be achieved when starting from a high base. Meanwhile low cost carriers have proliferated and intrude increasingly into areas where full service carriers previously dominated, both long and short haul.This has created the need for new initiatives which necessarily extend beyond mere cost saving in the legacy airline. Achieving adequate cost reductions to meet future market conditions simply are not possible from the current levels; to use the Irish idiom, if you want to get there, I wouldn’t start from here. On the basis of if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em - or at least emulate them - new approaches are being adopted. These include: establishing a formal alliance with one or more LCCs; creating a low cost subsidiary, or even more than one, thus forming a group of segment-sensitive operators; or combinations of all of these. Then again, there is also the option of acquiring an independent operator… Panel: |
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12:55 | Summit Wrap | |
13:00 | End of Summit and Lunch | |
13:15 | Golf Tournament: THE CAPA CUP: Europe vs ROW Tourism Ireland are kindly hosting a special Golf Day at the Powerscourt Golf Course. Tee off will be at 13:15 following lunch at the end of the Summit for delegates already registered to play. |