APEX FTE Ancillary & Retailing Conference

For the last half-decade, Christie led Spirit Airlines, the largest ultra low-cost carrier of its kind globally. Spirit defined the sweet spot between low-cost efficiency and elevated experience, with Big Front Seats offering comfort comparable to U.S. first class and European business class with GoComfy-style blocked middle seats. In this exclusive keynore, Ted Christie, former President and CEO of Spirit Airlines, will share bold insights on guest empowerment, emotional loyalty, and ancillary commercial reinvention, followed by a fireside conversation and open audience Q&A.

Following an opening presentation, the moderator will lead an interactive panel discussion exploring inflight innovation, CX, IFEC, onboard ancillary revenue opportunities, and more.

Each speaker will deliver a 10 to 15-minute presentation to set the scene on how their organisation is approaching Modern Airline Retailing and Offer & Order management. This will be followed by a fast-paced and interactive panel discussion where all participants will share their views on how industry stakeholders should navigate the tech landscape, and the best strategies for airlines to become fully-fledged retailers.

• What are the right approaches and platforms to achieve Modern Airline Retailing and Offer & Order capabilities?
• How can you reduce risk during the transition?
• How can you stay agile whilst achieving this?
• Will the new platforms be more resilient than their predecessors?

Following a scene-setting presentation, each speaker will talk from their seat for five minutes to share how they are evolving their approaches to revenue creation and CX enhancement, and the role that artificial intelligence (AI) is playing. After everyone has voiced their opinion, the panel will share their ideas for use cases and learnings from their efforts so far.

• How are each of the panellists and their organisations making use of AI today and what do they have planned next?
• Where does the most potential for AI lie, particularly around things like dynamic offers, disruption management, customer engagement and trip planning?
• What are the biggest challenges when introducing and implementing AI, and how can these challenges be tackled?
• Will AI really provide the ‘silver bullet’ that many people expect?
• What are the other building blocks that you need to put in place to realise the full potential of AI, specifically for revenue and CX enhancement?

Following a scene-setting presentation, each speaker will talk from their seat for five minutes to share their views before the session becomes a fast moving panel discussion.

Each speaker will deliver a short introduction to offer their opinions on the current state of play, followed by a fast-paced and interactive panel discussion.

• What are the big trends that are impacting airports’ commercial strategies today, and what future trends and developments should airports be planning for?
• How can technologies like AI, automation, IoT and the metaverse help to enhance airports’ commercial performance?
• What should an airport’s retail offering look like to ensure it appeals to a wide range of traveller demographics? Also, how can airports and their partners make best use of both physical and digital assets?
• What can we expect from the airport lounge of the future, and how important will lounges be to airports’ future commercial strategies?
• How can the industry better leverage and share the vast amounts of data it has access to, to make personalisation a reality and enhance commercial performance?
• How might business models between stakeholders need to evolve to create more differentiation and enhance commercial performance?

A fast-moving panel discussion exploring CX, innovation, digital transformation, and future opportunities and challenges.

Each speaker will deliver a 15-minute presentation, followed by an interactive panel discussion led by the moderator.

This two-part session will feature a combination of insightful presentations and interactive fireside chats.

Following an opening Fireside Chat, the panel will be invited to share their thoughts and experiences around a range of questions relating to digital airline retailing.

• Can all airlines (large/small/regional/international/full-service/low-cost) – really become fully-fledged digital retailers? If so, where should they start?
• How can so-called smaller airlines (measured by passenger numbers) embrace modern airline retailing without the big budgets of the major carriers?
• What are the crucial steps that you must take to ensure that your journey towards becoming a fully-fledged digital retailer ends in success?
• Are the airlines that have embraced modern airline retailing currently winning or losing?
• What lessons can we learn from the first movers?

Led by Eric Leopold, Founder of Threedot and former Director Transformation at IATA, this workshop-mode session will include real airline case studies and feedback from participants.

This interactive roundtable discussion will explore how airlines can tap into the latest developments to introduce new inflight products and services and, in turn, create new revenue generating opportunities at 30,000 feet.

• How are airlines and their partners embracing innovation to create new revenue opportunities inflight?
• What are the biggest opportunities and challenges in this space?
• How are airlines making creative use of IFEC today to enhance revenues and improve the customer experience, and what do they have planned next?
• Should airlines look at connectivity as being primarily a revenue generator, a customer experience enhancer, or both?
• What role can IFEC play in creating unique and memorable experiences going forward?