Future Airports Conference Agenda

The popular Tech & Innovation Briefings on the exhibition floor allow attendees to join guided tours and meet exhibitors with relevant products, services, and concepts. You can expect tailored guided tours from solution providers covering: Artificial Intelligence; Self-Service, Automation & Baggage; and Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles.

Join us as we officially open the exhibition hall and unveil the latest innovations, live demonstrations, technology showcases, and products from across the aviation industry.

Take the opportunity to enjoy a light breakfast or a hot drink while exploring the show floor, connecting with exhibitors, and networking with fellow attendees before a full day of inspiring conference sessions and business meetings.

The airport security checkpoint is undergoing its most significant transformation in a generation. With the launch of TSA Gold+ in May 2026, next-generation screening technology, and a new model for how checkpoints are funded, staffed, and communicated, the rules have changed — and airports that move first will define the passenger experience for America’s 250th anniversary, LA 2028, and beyond. This session brings together the leaders shaping that transformation: the screening technology innovators, the digital communication pioneers, the airline operators living it daily, and the federal perspective driving it forward.

• TSA Gold+ — A New Framework Arrives
  • What the new voluntary, performance-based program means for your airport — private capital, accountability, and checkpoint operations insulated from funding disruptions.
• Next-Generation Screening Technology
  • CT scanning, AI-assisted decisioning, and networked lanes are ready today — and new funding models can shrink deployment from decades to years.
• The Communication Layer: Throughput’s Missing Piece
  • A confused passenger breaks throughput no scanner can fix. See how checkpoint digital communication — including the America 250 deployment live across 13 U.S. airports — creates faster, calmer experiences.
• The Operator’s View: Airlines and Airports Downstream
  • How airlines and airports experience checkpoint transformation on the ground — what changes for passengers, staff, and daily operations.

Join us for the session that connects the technology, the paradigm shift, and the passenger — and leave knowing exactly how the new checkpoint era affects your airport, and what to do about it right now.

Full speaker line-up to be announced soon

At the epicentre of this show is the industry’s most exciting competition to seek out the very best new ideas to change our industry for the better. Competitors will pitch on-stage in an effort to impress our judges and audience, whose all-important votes will dictate who wins.

The format will be 5-minute pitch sessions by 5 shortlisted entries with quick-fire questions and comments from the judges on their transformative concept.

Find out more and submit your entry here

The aircraft turnaround remains an intensively manual process with a myriad of low paid, often inexperienced employees using a plethora of GSE equipment under intensive time pressures. Would automation offer a simpler, safer and more reliable way to run ramp operations? This session explores the recommendations of the Smart Ramp industry working group whose recent White Paper has urged aviation stakeholders to unleash the benefits offered by a more automated apron.

Following its highly successful debut at APEX FTE EMEA in Dublin, the initiative returns to Dallas and is bigger than ever. This airline-focused session offers attendees the chance to book guaranteed 5-minute introductory meetings with multiple airline buyers who will be hosting meeting tables.

The emphasis is on fostering airline-supplier collaborations on new technologies and sowing the seeds for long-term profit boosting business partnerships.

Participation is included at no additional cost as part of your FTE Global registration, although places are limited and meetings will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Learn more about Speed Networking, here >>

More speakers to be announced soon

This session will explore how a leading aviation operator will dare to do things differently in the future while retaining the DNA code at the heart of its successful 100-year history.

Make the most of the vital networking opportunities provided during this networking reception where delegates can enjoy demonstrations in the exhibition and network with their peers over drinks.

The reception will also provide the perfect location for our Moonshot Competition co-host, Kevin Kleist, Head of Emerging Trends, Southwest Airlines & Head of Innovation & Startup Engagement, Future Travel Experience, to reveal the winner of the FTE Global Moonshot Competition.

U.S. CBP has expanded public/private partnerships with the airlines, airports, and cruise lines to provide travellers a secure, seamless, and touchless inspections process and enhance the passenger experience. With an increase in travel to the United States for the World Cup in 2026 and the LA Olympics in 2028, CBP is innovating the inspections process to add an extra layer of security while streamlining entry into the U.S. through a number of initiatives. In this session, CBP executives will provide an update on CBP’s ongoing efforts to leverage advanced technology like facial biometrics and mobile applications to further secure and enhance travel in the air and sea environments.

Ground handlers are the rainmakers when it comes to sending aircraft away on-time and ensuring passengers experience a smooth and satisfying journey. So, why are they minority players in airport and airline plans to roll out new technologies and initiatives designed to improve the customer experience? How can we bring handlers to the table transform the performance enhancing power of innovations at the airport? This session invites leading handlers in the Americas to give their perspective.

The popular Tech & Innovation Briefings on the exhibition floor allow attendees to join guided tours and meet exhibitors with relevant products, services, and concepts. You can expect tailored guided tours from solution providers covering: Artificial Intelligence; Self-Service, Automation & Baggage; and Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles.

Cybersecurity has never been more critical. As the aviation industry embraces digital transformation, increasingly sophisticated threats, expanding attack surfaces, and the rapid adoption of AI and autonomous technologies are creating new security challenges across the ecosystem. In this interactive workshop, Theresa Blackwell-Frank, President & Chief Information Security Officer at Virtuo Group Corporation, will draw on her extensive experience across the airport industry and other sectors – including with the likes of Pittsburgh International Airport, City of Houston and Houston First Corporation – to explore today’s evolving cyber threat landscape. Attendees will gain practical insights into strengthening cyber resilience while enabling innovation, with a focus on balancing the adoption of smart technologies and digital infrastructure with the need to safeguard sensitive passenger, operational, and business-critical data from emerging threats.

Following its highly successful debut at APEX FTE EMEA in Dublin, the initiative returns to Dallas and is bigger than ever. This airport-focused session offers attendees the chance to book guaranteed 5-minute introductory meetings with multiple airline buyers who will be hosting meeting tables.

The emphasis is on fostering airline-supplier collaborations on new technologies and sowing the seeds for long-term profit boosting business partnerships.

Participation is included at no additional cost as part of your FTE Global registration, although places are limited and meetings will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Learn more about Speed Networking, here >>

The popular Tech & Innovation Briefings on the exhibition floor allow attendees to join guided tours and meet exhibitors with relevant products, services, and concepts. You can expect tailored guided tours from solution providers covering: Artificial Intelligence; Self-Service, Automation & Baggage; and Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles.

This panel will explore how the airport tech stack is evolving, how new technologies and tools can be integrated, whether the industry needs to transition away from legacy infrastructure altogether, and how the biggest challenges can be overcome to unlock greater operational efficiency.

More speakers to be announced soon

After two days of learning, networking, and inspiration, we invite you to unwind with an informal drink. Rock & Brews is just 12 minutes from the Gaylord Convention Center and 6 minutes from DFW Airport—perfect for a quick drink, a casual bite, or a last stop before you head out.