10 reasons you, and your team, should attend the co-located APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing events in Dublin (10-12 June 2025)
Join us in Dublin in just three weeks for the co-located APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing events, where air transport’s most forward-thinking digital, commercial, CX, and innovation leaders come together to reimagine the future of travel. Delivered with support from Headline Partners International Airlines Group (IAG), Enterprise Ireland and Ryanair, as well as the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX), this is the region’s definitive forum for transformative thinking and cross-sector collaboration. Complimentary passes are available for airlines, and special low-cost rates apply for airports.
Here are 10 reasons why you and your team should be there:
#1: Exclusive Ted Christie keynote, insights from Booking.com & much more
This year’s event will feature exclusive keynote sessions that promise to set the tone and inspire attendees on their future strategies. An unmissable highlight will be the Opening Keynote from Ted Christie, who recently stepped down after a transformational run at the helm of Spirit Airlines. He will deliver candid and compelling insights on guest empowerment, emotional loyalty, and ancillary commercial reinvention, followed by a fireside conversation and open audience Q&A. Booking.com will also take part in the keynote line-up, sharing how one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms is using technology and AI to expand its “everything but the stay” offering – including flights, airport transport, attractions, and insurance – and enhance the customer experience across the travel journey. In addition, our Day 2 Opening Keynote will feature a panel discussion led by Jamie Heaslip, Ireland & UK Strategic Growth Lead, Stripe & International Rugby Legend, featuring Dave O’Donovan, Chief Digital & Transformation Officer, Aer Lingus; and Vincent Harrison, Chief Commercial & Development Officer, daa.
#2: An outstanding exhibition of industry innovators, including startups you won’t see anywhere else
The APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing exhibition provides a concentrated showcase of the latest products, services and solutions to help redefine the end-to-end passenger experience, optimise operational efficiency & sustainability efforts, and create new commercial endeavours both on the ground and inflight. Viewing demonstrations of the latest technologies, products and services in the exhibition can provide you with essential inspiration on where your organisation goes next with its offer and will enable you to fully understand the latest developments in the areas of digital transformation, customer experience, commercial revenues, inflight innovation, operational efficiency, identity, future airports, baggage, and sustainability.
#3: An exclusive Ryanair Deep Dive session
Ryanair will deliver an exclusive deep dive keynote session, sharing its latest strategies and innovations across airport operations, inflight services, digital platforms, and commercial growth. With exclusive contributions from John Hurley, Chief Technology Officer; Tom Kelly, Director – Ground Operations; Sinead Quinn, Director of Inflight; and Greg O’Gorman, Director of Ancillary Revenue, this powerhouse session promises to offer unmissable insight into how Ryanair is redefining the future of travel – and what it expects from its partners to support its continued success. FTE shows are all about creating experiences you simply won’t find at other industry events, and this session is a perfect reflection of that mission. Expect honest perspectives, future-focused thinking, and a unique opportunity to understand how Ryanair envisions the wider air transport ecosystem evolving to meet its ambitious growth targets.
#4: Celebrate industry innovation, collaboration, and progress at the FTE EMEA Innovate Awards
Taking place at the heart of the APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing events in Dublin, the FTE EMEA Innovate Awards shine a spotlight on the most forward-thinking organisations in air transport. Finalists from leading airlines, airports, and vendors will pitch their initiatives live on stage, with winners chosen by a combination of expert judges and audience votes. This year’s shortlist includes Qatar Airways, Emirates, TUI, SunExpress, and SAS in the Most Innovative Airline Initiative category; Aeroporti di Roma, Royal Schiphol Group, Munich Airport, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, and Groupe ADP in the Most Innovative Airport Initiative category; and Mata Logistics, Arcube, Nomtek, and Hands In competing for Best New CX Concept. It’s a unique opportunity to hear directly from those leading the way on customer experience, digital transformation, and operational innovation – and to help decide who takes home the trophies.
#5: Benchmark your organisation’s innovation levels against the industry’s best
Through our conference theme of ‘Innovate to Elevate’ APEX FTE EMEA will look at innovation holistically and explore the most exciting ways in which digital, design, unique partnerships and collaboration efforts can be scaled and break new ground in the areas of operations, customer experience, commercial, product, service, safety, and sustainability. 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 hone in on the most pertinent topics and areas of interest. Featuring interactive sessions on AI, innovation & digital transformation excellence; baggage innovation; autonomous airports; driving next-level customer experiences both at the airport and inflight; innovative approaches to minimising the impact of disruption; and so much more. Hear insights from the likes of Aeroporti di Roma, Royal Schiphol Group, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, daa Labs, Turkish Airlines Technology, Riyadh Airports Company; Vancouver Airport Authority, Aer Lingus, and more.
Explore the full APEX FTE EMEA conference agenda
#6: Understand the steps needed for airlines, airports, and their partners to become fully fledged retailers
The APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing conference will deliver an unrivalled learning experience and provide a platform for some of the most progressive new approaches around the world to help inspire radical new business models between stakeholders, and new ways of thinking. Optimising commercial performance has never been more important and the time is right to bring the world’s airlines, airports, OTAs and their partners together to share best practice, new ideas and knowledge on scaling disruptive new approaches that drive new levels of conversion with passengers through digital means, and innovative new approaches at every step of the passenger journey. Featuring interactive sessions on transformational airline retailing strategies, AI in travel retailing, enhancing airport commercial performance, ancillary revenue innovation, leveraging IFEC for new revenue streams, and more. Hear insights from Lufthansa Group, Air France-KLM, Threedot, Pegasus Airlines, TravelX, Play Airlines, Gatwick Airport, Keflavik Airport, Fraport, Icelandair, WestJet, Virgin Australia, Oman Air, Global Airlines, Branchspace - digital reinvented, CAVU, nlmtd, Hopper Technology Solutions, Protect Group, and more.
Explore the full APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing conference agenda
#7: Unrivalled networking opportunities thanks to our unforgettable social programme
Elevate your time in Dublin with our vibrant social programme, designed to complement the conference experience and showcase the city’s famous hospitality. Enjoy a range of relaxed networking opportunities where you can connect with fellow industry professionals in a more informal and engaging setting. Highlights include the FTE Dublin Ice Breaker at BrewDog Dublin Outpost; the Networking Reception; the much-anticipated FTE and APEX Awards Ceremony; and the ‘Summer in Dublin’ Travel Massive Meet Up, jointly hosted by Travel Massive Dublin and Stripe. Plus, we have teamed up with passenger disruption experts Plan3, to invite attendees to join them for a two-hour guided City of Dublin Walking Tour, offering a local taste of the historical and cultural sights of this beautiful city.
A key ambition for the live show days is to drive real engagement at every opportunity between each of our attendees. To support this goal, we are thrilled to offer our valued delegates access to our Attendee Engagement Platform – Powered by Swapcard; our system offers AI-powered matchmaking, customised leads, a smart and personalised event itinerary, and super-charged networking functionality.
#8: Stacks of new exciting features to expand your thinking and evoke conversation
Future Travel Experience is wholeheartedly committed to driving positive industry change. A vital part of these efforts is our deep-dive sessions, which bring together senior experts and leaders from across the industry to tackle key topics, co-create forward-thinking visions, and address common challenges. As part of this year’s efforts, we invite attendees to the AI Travel Retailing Symposium & FTE EMEA Baggage Innovation Summit, each session demanding new thinking and approaches to enable collaboration between different stakeholders across the sector to identify challenges and deliver solutions that parties could deliver individually. The AI Travel Retailing Symposium will bring together leaders from the likes of Threedot, Pegasus Airlines, TravelX and PLAY Airlines to discuss how we can successfully leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for dynamic offers, disruption management, customer engagement, trip planning and more. Meanwhile, the FTE EMEA Baggage Innovation Summit will see leaders from Brussels Airport, Aena, British Airways, BagID and more focus on how the industry can collaboratively bring new innovations to life to enhance baggage delivery in the very near future.
#9: Innovation & startup pitch sessions
The FTE EMEA / FTE Ancillary & Retailing Startup Pitch Session will provide a platform for high-potential startups to showcase their products and services that have been developed to enhance the customer experience, operational efficiency and commercial performance. Among the startups that will be presenting are Arcube, Emu Analytics, Platform 195, Cation Consulting, myPlane and more.
#10: Co-located with in-person meetings of our FTE Communities
FTE’s role as a dynamic community catalyst and enabler of industry transformation is spearheaded via our three Communities – the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, FTE World Airport Retailing Working Group, and FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group, which will each meet in-person for members-only gatherings alongside APEX FTE EMEA and Ancillary & Retailing. At the members-only FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, FTE World Airport Retailing Working Group, and FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group live events, hosted as part of our Dublin schedule, attendees can expect high-level innovation keynotes, interactive panel discussions, co-creation roundtables, and quick-fire pitches from a selection of industry leaders and pioneering startups.
FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group FTE World Ancillary & Retailing Working Group
APEX Future Travel Experience EMEA
Future Travel Experience EMEA will be co-located with FTE Ancillary & Retailing.
Date: - June 2025
Location: RDS, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland