Benchmark your organisation’s innovation levels against the industry’s best.
FTE conferences deliver a memorable learning experience by providing progressive insights from industry leaders, technology giants, disruptors, parallel industries, academia and startups. We run plenary sessions to provide outside-the-box thinking and inspiration on the future, and also hone in on the most pertinent topics and areas of interest. Our sessions utilise diverse formats ranging from case studies and panel sessions to co-creation roundtables and elevator pitches.
You can expect the conferences to cover innovation efforts around digital transformation, customer experience, commercial revenues, inflight innovation, operational efficiency, future airports and sustainability.
Our FTE Innovate Awards pitch sessions will take place throughout the show, providing a wealth of inspiration as the competitors share details of their most innovative initiatives and what they have learned along the way.
The FTE Digital & Innovation agenda
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Tuesday 18th June 2019
FTE Innovation & Startup Hub Live (members only)
The FTE Innovation & Startup Hub is the industry’s only network designed for the organisations and individuals who are at the forefront of innovation in the air transport sector. It has been developed to make it as easy as possible for corporate innovators and startups in the air transport sector to engage in meaningful discussions and lay the foundations for future collaboration. The members-only FTE Innovation & Startup Hub Live Day is the platform by which we will facilitate face-to-face engagement between our Corporate Partners and startup/scaleup members. Interested in joining? Find out more here.
Istanbul Airport tours (led by Ä°GA)
Headline Partners Ä°GA will facilitate guided tours of the ground-breaking new airport for premium delegates. Istanbul Airport, which opened in October 2018, has been constructed over an area of 76.5 million square metres to the north of Istanbul, 35km from the city centre. The construction is being carried out in four phases and once complete, the new airport will host flights to more than 300 destinations with an annual passenger capacity of up to 200 million.
Wednesday 19th June 2019
Official EXPO opening
Joint Keynote Session
Daniel Coleman
Founder & Chairman
Future Travel Experience
Paul Hogan
Event Director
The New Airport Show Istanbul
Dr. Joe Leader
Group CEO
APEX/IFSA/FTE
How to become a digital powerhouse in today’s mobile-first world – lessons from an e-commerce giant
Paul Armstrong
Enterprise Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services
Exclusive unveiling of “Air Transport 2035” – a unique FTE/Fast Future Crowdsourced Think Tank
Rohit Talwar is a global futurist who has captivated past FTE audiences with his cutting edge insights on the future of the sector.
In partnership with Fast Future, we have launched “Air Transport 2035” – a new Think Tank exploring the different possible scenarios and strategies that could emerge for the sector.
In this, our latest and most ambitious Think Tank project yet, we will invite our entire ecosystem to contribute their thoughts on the key drivers of change and potential scenarios for the industry, and help shape a portfolio of Industry Blueprints. These will outline scenarios of what the air transport industry around the globe could look like in 2035, the winning strategies required by players of different scale in major markets, and how all stakeholders should prepare themselves to thrive within it. Ahead of FTE EMEA & FTE Ancillary 2019, we will survey the industry and our Advisory Board members on these issues, and use this input as the foundation for the keynote presentation from renowned futurist Rohit Talwar.
Visions and learnings from organisations that are pushing boundaries with their digitalisation efforts
First Working Session
Marta Dimitrova
Head of Marketing & Communications
Future Travel Experience
The digital journey of Turkish Airlines
Seyda Tartar
IT Group Manager
SunExpress
How Avianca has turned a 100-year-old airline into a digital-first company
Santiago Aldana SanĂn
CDO & CTO
Avianca
Schiphol set a course to be “the world’s leading digital airport”. Does it believe it has achieved it and what lessons has it learned along the way?
Rosanne van der Stam
Value Stream Owner for Customer Experience
Aviation Solutions by Schiphol Group
What advanced technologies is Evelop Airlines leveraging to power its business performance-focused digital transformation project, Titanium?
Alvaro Coromina
IT & Innovation Director,
World2Fly
FTE Startup Pitch Session
(in partnership with Propeller Shannon)
Propeller Shannon celebrates Ireland’s long history as aviation innovators to develop a unique Aviation and Travel Tech programme. Based at a dedicated innovation centre at Shannon Airport, Propeller Shannon will drive the growth of startup aviation companies and participate in their success, with a goal of producing the next generation of companies of global significance. See the startups chosen through their Cohort 2 deliver elevator pitches on their unique capabilities. Each startup will be quizzed by a panel of industry experts following their pitch.
Nirali Shah
Director of Innovation, Partnerships
Vantage Airport Group
Karin Gylin
Head of Strategic Development and Innovation
Swedavia
Simone van Neerven
Founder, reBel.la & former Head of Innovation
Vueling
Visions and learnings from organisations that are pushing boundaries with their innovation efforts
Second Working Session
Ryan Ghee
Chief Operating Officer
Future Travel Experience
Viva Air Labs is using data and rapid testing to drive Latin America’s first travel and innovation hub, with an LCC mindset, but can you achieve real innovation on a budget?
Clyde Hutchinson
General Partner
Team ABC (former Head of Viva Air Labs)
The Swedavia approach to instilling a culture of innovation throughout the entire 10 airports it operates
Karin Gylin
Head of Strategic Development and Innovation
Swedavia
How innovation is shaping every corner of Vueling
Simone van Neerven
Founder, reBel.la & former Head of Innovation
Vueling
Creating a cohesive innovation strategy across the Vantage airport network that is powered by an ecosystem of innovation partnerships
Nirali Shah
Director of Innovation, Partnerships
Vantage Airport Group
Day 1 Closing Session for "Ancillary" and "Digital & Innovation" conferences
Sinead Finn
Founder
affinnity
How is easyJet digitally optimising its proposition to meet the evolving needs of its passengers whilst creating new revenue opportunities?
Ben Robertson
Product Manager - Ancillary Revenue
easyJet
Inspiration from the hospitality sector on how travel stakeholders can use data, video and tech to reach their customers in new and unexpected ways, using different canvases in digital to tell stories.
Matthew Elgie
Digital Director
YOTEL
Consumer retailing insights and trends that could affect Travel
Ravi Bagal
Head of Worldwide Business Development, Consumers and Retail
Amazon Web Services
Conference Close
Gala Evening beside the Golden Horn
(Open to Premium Pass Holders Only)
“An evening beside the Golden Horn”
The Gala Evening hosted by Turkish Airlines, will be held at the Haliç Congress Center where delegates will enjoy the finest Turkish entertainment, dining and hospitality.
The Golden Horn, also known by its modern Turkish name Haliç, is the primary waterway between the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. The venue, is a statement of this modern mega-city’s regeneration, framing a spectacular waterfront of grand properties which are a symbol of Istanbul’s beauty and richness.
Thursday 20th June 2019
Day 2 Joint Keynote Session
Changing the way one of the world’s largest airline groups creates end-to-end future products, services and experiences for more than 140 million guests
Guido Woska
Global Executive Partner & Managing Director
Manyone
The FTE Sprint Sessions Day
It has become apparent to us that despite the industry’s appetite to innovate with the latest technologies and approaches, airlines and airports still struggle to overcome many of the age old industry challenges. In our Sprint Sessions we will take these problems and try to collectively forge recommendations to drive industry progress. Thanks to our unique approach, we will hear a scene-setting presentation from a progressive thinker or first-mover with bold ideas, a series of opinions from a panel of industry innovators, and then suggestions from our audience. This will enable us to create a set of recommendations that we will share with the audience, and industry at large, after the conference.
Escaping the grip of legacy systems
Sprint Session
Conclusions from each of our sprint sessions will be published in the coming weeks
Clyde Hutchinson
General Partner
Team ABC (former Head of Viva Air Labs)
Thomas Hoff Andersson
Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer
Munich Airport
Simon Lamkin
Chief Executive Officer
LamTech Solutions & former CIO of Brussels Airlines
Nicholas Woods
Chief Information Officer
Manchester Airports Group
Alvaro Coromina
IT & Innovation Director,
World2Fly
Marcus Motzkuhn
Manager Digital Distribution & Solutions
SunExpress
M. Osama Sheikh
Project Manager – Technology & Innovation
Pakistan International Airlines
Questions to consider
- Airlines and airports need to think beyond the norm to achieve radical change but is the air transport industry reluctant to address legacy system replacement and invest in new, modern systems?
- How much modernisation and flexibility can airports and airlines truly expect from their aging legacy systems?
- In the age of the startup, what role do startups/scaleups have to play here? Can you really trust small, young companies to deliver reliable technology that is so central to your day-to-day operations?
- What are the established legacy providers doing well and doing badly? How can the negative points be addressed to deliver improvements for all stakeholders across the board?
- Can transformation really be achieved through off-the-shelf products or do you need to develop bespoke products and services in-house?
- Is it even viable for airports and airlines to build their own IT systems to replace aging legacy systems?
- What role will the global tech giants (Google, Amazon, etc) play in this space and are they a genuine threat to the established legacy system providers?
- Are airline/airport alliances paving the way for new collaborative system approaches that reimagine IT operations?
Special Presentation - How technology has powered the incredible of Pegasus Airlines
Erdinç Uğurlu
VP, Business Solutions
Pegasus Airlines
Asli Bayraktar
Account Services Manager
Hitit CS
Improving on-time performance
Sprint Session
Conclusions from each of our sprint sessions will be published in the coming weeks
Clyde Hutchinson
General Partner
Team ABC (former Head of Viva Air Labs)
Thomas Hoff Andersson
Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer
Munich Airport
Neil Harvey
Head of Airline Performance
Gatwick Airport
Akira Mitsumasu
VP, Global Marketing & CX
Japan Airlines & Member of the APEX Board of Directors
Tony Chapman
Director Industry Affairs, Alliances and Strategic Initiatives
Collins Aerospace
Ismihan Anderson
IT and Automation Director
Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen
Questions to consider
Overcoming baggage headaches
Sprint Session
Conclusions from each of our sprint sessions will be published in the coming weeks
Clyde Hutchinson
General Partner
Team ABC (former Head of Viva Air Labs)
Thomas Hoff Andersson
Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer
Munich Airport
Murat Demirbilek
Vice President of Ground Operations
Pegasus Airlines
Urban Söderberg
Market Development Manager RFID Aviation
Avery Dennison
Jasper Quak
Managing Director
BAGTAG
Questions to consider
Conference Close
Istanbul Airport tours (led by Turkish Airlines)
Open to Premium Pass Holders Only
Turkish Airlines will lead guided tours of their new home, Istanbul Airport, which will change the experience of travelling with its advanced technologies and extraordinary capacity. Delegates will gain invaluable insights on the customer journey strategy, from self-service approaches through to the ground-breaking lounge.
What Our Community Says
Hear directly from the airline, airport, and commercial leaders who make APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing the world’s definitive event for airline and airport commercial innovation and revenue growth.
“I think it’s a great event and it’s just a great platform to discover lots of different ideas out there. We as an airline can take advantage of some of these ideas and work together with our partners to bring some of them to life. ”
“We have had a wonderful experience. This is our first time exhibiting at FTE Dublin. The quality of people that we have met has been superb. It is one of the first events we have been to where there is a real social aspect to it. What FTE puts on outside of the actual conferences and exhibition is really engaging. ”
“Ancillary growth is imperative for all airlines, and digital is the great enabler to achieving that. However, many new collaborations must be forged between stakeholders to deliver the passenger the right offer at the right moment to enhance customer experiences and increase profitability at every stage of the passenger journey, whether that be through a mobile device or an IFE …screen. FTE is working hard, and creatively, to bring those stakeholders together to learn best practice and forge new partnerships, and I am pleased to support their efforts. ”
“We very much enjoy coming to Dublin for FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing. We have had a good event, speaking to exactly the right people. It is everything we hoped for. The social events are of paramount importance. In the exhibition we have serious talks about business and our vision, then the social events really give a different …aspect to the event – you are able to converse with people on a different level in a more relaxed atmosphere. ”
“I have been very happy being here. We have had a good audience with lots of nice meetings and relevant people. The social aspect of the event has been very nice – the opportunities have been there to meet people, and everyone has been in good spirits. The conference content has been well tailored. Will we attend again? The immediate …answer is yes. ”
“The event will give us an insight on where we stand, how Covid has changed certain frameworks and should give us food for thought of how to handle the challenges in the future of the retail and F&B world. Come and join the FTE Event in Dublin and be inspired. ”
“I think the event has been very easy-going and a very warm atmosphere so it has been very easy to connect with everybody here. The programme has been very well structured with a good mix of presentations, but also I had some time to look at the expo and meet with people. The Gala Evening was very impressive. We are …also very grateful for the Ancillary Award that goes to my team. ”
“It is the second time that we have exhibited at FTE Dublin and it has been fantastic. I think the conference subjects have been really interesting and topical. The networking has been fantastic, with good conversations and good individuals to meet from across different areas of the travel sector. ”
APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing 2026 Registration
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Book Your BoothVital Event Information
APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing 2026 will be the world’s definitive event for airline and airport commercial innovation and revenue growth. The show will bring together global leaders in retailing, loyalty, payments, digital transformation, and ancillary strategy to explore new business models, share best practices, and unlock new commercial opportunities across the end-to-end travel experience.
- Event:
- APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing 2026
- Date:
- – June 2026
- Location:
- RDS Dublin, Ireland