Dear friends and colleagues,
I write this note 10,000m up on a packed flight back from Istanbul. It is an incredibly buoyant and exciting time for our sector as demand to travel is still booming, and it feels the industry is really now taking on the big topics like digital transformation, empowering workforce & passengers, and sustainability, which too often in previous years were just being paid lip service to in my view. Our expanded Advisory Board and I believe that this decade will be a defining era for our sector and I am proud that FTE is right at the heart of accelerating progress, driving more collaboration and sharing across the industry. I want to take this opportunity to provide an update on some of our key projects for the next few months.
FTE Aviation & Robotics Summit – bringing roboticists and aviation experts together next month to co-create new solutions; Alaska Airlines keynote announced and 30 airline/airport groups registered from around the world
The Aviation & Robotics Summit is being delivered in partnership with our highly progressive partners at Pittsburgh International Airport on 14-16 May. It rewrites the rules on what you can expect from an industry event – taking place at the renowned Carnegie Mellon University with an opening keynote from Alaska Airlines and contributions from pioneers inside and outside of our sector, plus visits to the most dynamic robotics companies based in PIT, and workshops putting roboticists and aviation experts together. It is a free must-attend event for airline/airport executives embracing the fact that robotics are ready now to help solve many of our most pressing challenges. Participation will enable attendees to truly understand how the rise of autonomy will impact the way our sector evolves hugely into the future, and provide connections to many of the industry’s most progressive organisations seeking to leverage advanced technology. Register / express your interest in attending the FTE Aviation & Robotics Summit >>
FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing agendas launched; Ryanair announced as a Headline Partner; free to attend for airlines and low-cost for airports
This show is where the worlds of digital, commercial and CX collide and we recently launched the first phase of our agendas for the upcoming co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events, taking place in Dublin on 11-13 June. These feature some fantastic highlights – an opening keynote session including an interview with Anko van der Werff, CEO, SAS, a major focus on AI, and the reveal of a brand-new Think Tank on “Future Differentiation & Business Models” being created exclusively with senior execs from flyadeal, Vantage Airport Group, Beond, Keflavik Airport, CAVU and Fast Future, through to our Innovate Awards competition which will see airlines, airports & suppliers across the EMEA region competing to win, plus multiple social events in one of the most fun and vibrant cities in the world. Register here – one registration provides access to both events.
Ryanair has become a Headline Partner to FTE EMEA/Ancillary & Retailing, joining International Airlines Group (IAG), APEX and Dublin Airport as fellow Headline Partners.
Ryanair will carry 300 million passengers a year by 2034, and I am pleased to report today that they have also become the newest member of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, joining Vienna International Airport, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Gulf Air Group, Manchester Airports Group, Isavia and London Luton Airport, which have all joined in recent weeks – the majority of whom have also joined the FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group (BIWG), which now has 112 members around the world.
FTE Communities – almost 850 member organisations collectively now; plus dynamic meetings in Frankfurt, Pittsburgh and Dublin imminent
The speed at which the FTE Communities memberships are scaling and inspiring one another is a great source of pride to me, because 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. Collectively, our Hub, BIWG and World Airport Retailing Working Group (WARWG) have almost 850 individual corporations as members.
The in-person community meetings (like our recent gathering in Tampa in late-February) are extra special as they enable fantastic relationship-building and deeper discussions on topics away from the official proceedings. I look forward to our next meeting in Frankfurt on 15 April kindly hosted by Lufthansa, and those around our landmark Aviation & Robotics event in Pittsburgh on 14 May, and ahead of our Dublin event on 11 June, and to hearing the latest on a number of the POCs taking place within the groups.
As our latest schedule of activities shows, we are offering more high-level content and gatherings across our portfolio than ever before, all designed to support the industry as it lays new foundations to better serve passengers, workforces and planet, while increasing revenues.
The line-up for our in-person events and meetings is below and our websites have a lot of information on plans and how to take part:
FTE Global and FTE APEX Asia Expo plans taking shape; Warner Bros. Discovery, DFW, Air France, JFK Terminal One, EL AL, BER, Qatar Airways, Southwest already set to speak; plus new Showcase Zones and Buyer Programs launched
We recently announced a must-attend keynote session for FTE Global in which David Decker, President of Content Sales, will discuss how Warner Bros. Discovery has adapted and evolved to best serve its consumers and business partners – and succeed in a post-pandemic landscape. I tease a few of the confirmed organisations speaking across these shows above, but we will save the big announcements on FTE Global (co-located with APEX/IFSA Global EXPO) in LA on 28-30 October, and FTE APEX Asia Expo in Singapore on 19-20 November until my next update, but rest assured we have set the bar very high for what we want to achieve with those shows and we have no doubt they will be our biggest, and best, events in the Americas and Asia-Pac yet.
Please do let me know if you would be interested to learn more regarding any of our plans, join any of our FTE Communities, share ideas for content you would like to see us tackle, or to discuss speaking opportunities. We hope to see you soon at one of our upcoming landmark gatherings and wish you all the best with your efforts to advance progress both within your own organisation and our wider industry.
All the best.
Daniel Coleman
Founder & CEO
Future Travel Experience
