Dear friends and colleagues,
I hope this message finds you well. Since our inception, FTE has worked tirelessly to bring stakeholders together on neutral ground to better serve travellers and enhance collaboration across our sector. Today, I am excited to share how we are taking this approach to a whole new level with a series of events and initiatives during the second half of the year.
FTE Communities evolution, and the new FTE Accelerating Collaboration & Engagement (ACE) platform
The rapid growth of the FTE Communities, now comprising almost 900 individual corporations as members (with the likes of Saudia, Port of Seattle, Ontario International Airport and KLM joining most recently), is a great source of pride to me. I am convinced we will find the right approaches much faster as an industry if we pool our ideas and learnings to move forward as one versus working in silos. By joining our communities – Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, Baggage Innovation Working Group and recently-relaunched World Ancillary & Retailing Working Group – our members gain access to invaluable insights, regular online and in-person meetings, and a platform to share ideas and knowledge.
However, it’s clear that to solve many of the industry’s biggest challenges we need to find completely new approaches. Last month at our FTE show in Dublin we were delighted to launch, with our partner nlmtd, an effort called BOOST: a global coalition for accelerating baggage innovation with Royal Schiphol Group, Avinor, and Incheon International Airport Corporation. This initiative will leverage the collective innovation power of multiple airports, emphasising hands-on execution and rapid implementation of new technologies, which you can read more about here.
I can exclusively reveal today that this is the first project through our new FTE Accelerating Collaboration & Engagement (ACE) platform, which is dedicated to driving real collaborative action between stakeholders, facilitating fast progress and dynamic change across multiple areas of the industry. The phased approach will move from knowledge-sharing through challenge-based innovation, assessing which solutions really work, through to the potential for shared investments in exciting new technologies. I am pleased to announce that our next focus area will be on creating ‘Smart Ramp’ operations, exploring everything from autonomous vehicles and inspection approaches through to timestamping and FOD detection. The FTE ACE platform will create a level of collaboration between stakeholders that has arguably never been seen before, and we are already considering our focus areas for 2025. Please let me know if you are interested in getting involved in our Smart Ramp effort, or if there is an area you would like us to explore.
Our ‘CES of Aviation’ events in LA and Singapore promise to be our biggest and best yet – you should be attending at least one of these shows!
Our flagship FTE Global show returns to Long Beach on October 28-30, co-located once more with APEX/IFSA Global EXPO and uniquely bringing the very best of the airport and inflight realms together under one roof to reimagine the passenger journey. With an overarching theme of ‘Transforming Air Transport’, it will create the largest gathering of air transport executives from around the world in North America in 2024.
We have already confirmed incredible speakers, from both within and outside our sector, from the likes of Warner Bros. Discovery, Meta, Ferrovial, Archer, Riyadh Air, El Al, Swedavia, Lufthansa, Alaska Airlines, DFW, Air France, PIT, TSA, Avianca, GTAA, Air Cahana, CVG, CLT, United, BER, Southwest Airlines, Fraport, PDX, Swissport, Isavia, Spirit and Avinor, who will take to the stage to share their future visions. Attendees will have access to our largest-ever end-to-end exhibition (with some amazing unveilings), unique social and networking events, co-creation workshops, government agency briefings, Think Tank unveilings, a startup showcase, and powerful networking tools, providing unrivalled engagement opportunities between participants. All three of the FTE Communities will meet at the show too.
Register for FTE Global 2024 >>
Meanwhile, FTE APEX Asia Expo returns to the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on November 19-20. The show attracted a record number of attendees last year from no fewer than 64 countries and is Asia’s largest free to attend passenger experience and business performance expo for the air transport industry. Delivered in partnership with our Headline Partners Changi Airport Group, Singapore Airlines and Onboard Hospitality, once more, it promises to be our biggest and best event in the region yet through our theme of ‘Innovate to Grow’. We are seeing a huge level of interest in the show, with air traffic in Asia very much booming again. This is the perfect forum for those serving the region to gather en masse to learn from one another, demo the very latest products and services from everyone from Boeing to SITA, and plan for the future together. We were pleased to announce top figures from Gulf Air Group, AirAsia, SriLankan Airlines, Qatar Airways, ZIPAIR, Aeroporti di Roma and flydubai as speakers, and many more will follow in the weeks to come.
Register for FTE APEX Asia Expo 2024 >>
Both events offer the opportunity for airlines and airports to visit our exhibition halls for free, but we have introduced new Buyer Programs to make it even easier and more enticing for airlines and airports to send major delegations to both events and take in all aspects of the show.
FTE Innovate Awards expand to Americas and Asia-Pacific – enter today!
Following the success of our EMEA edition, we were thrilled to announce recently that the FTE Innovate Awards are expanding to the Americas and Asia-Pacific – the FTE Americas Innovate Awards will be presented at FTE Global and the FTE APAC Innovate Awards will be presented at FTE APEX Asia Expo. Whether you’re an airline, airport, established vendor, or startup, we want to hear from you! Enter via the links below.
Find out more and enter the FTE Americas Innovate Awards >>
Find out more and enter the FTE APAC Innovate Awards >>
More high-level content and gatherings than ever before
In addition to our landmark events, our full schedule of activities offers more high-level content and gatherings than ever before, supporting the industry as it lays the foundations for the next era of travel. Change is in the air, and FTE is proud to drive and shape it alongside pioneering industry figures.
I hope all of the activities outlined above can play a role in your own organisation’s planning for the near-, mid- and long-term, helping you drive performance. After all, that’s what Future Travel Experience is all about and we hope to see you in-person or online very soon because like I said earlier, we will all get to where we want to a lot faster if we do it together.
If you have any questions or if I can do anything to support your participation, please let me know.
All the best,
Daniel Coleman
Founder & CEO
Future Travel Experience
