CAPA NZ Aviation & Corporate Travel Summit: Auckland, 16/17-Oct-2019

For more information or to register to attend, visit the CAPA New Zealand Aviation & Corporate Travel Summit website.

All change in NZ aviation

The 2019 summit comes during a time of change for New Zealand's domestic market, with the competitive landscape in the wider international passenger traffic market across the South Pacific also evolving.

Within New Zealand, the national carrier Air New Zealand has announced the departure of long time CEO Christopher Luxon, with a replacement potentially to be announced during October. The airline has also just concluded a new deal to renew its long haul fleet.

Its local rival Jetstar Airways has announced that it intends to end its New Zealand regional Q300 turboprop services by the end of Nov-2019, after years of losses.

Traffic and tourism is slowing

At the same time, after a period of sustained and rapid growth in the international segment passenger traffic to New Zealand has flattened out. Previously rapidly growing source markets, such as China, South Korea, Japan and India, have plunged into negative territory, which has been only partially offset by renewed growth in arrivals from the Americas.

With tourism supporting 6% of GDP, New Zealand's Government is keen to liberalise its air services arrangements in pursuit of growth, having opened negotiations with ASEAN in September on a unified air services agreement.

Counterbalancing the slowdown in New Zealand is the continued rapid arrivals growth in the South Pacific, with particularly healthy growth in arrivals by air.

The 2019 New Zealand Aviation Summit will be held over two days and feature dedicated aviation and corporate travel streams, addressing a range of topics of interest in the dynamic New Zealand market. The summit will also consider the wider aviation outlook and key airline industry developments.

Key areas to be covered include:

• New Zealand's ability to attract consistent year-round airline capacity
• The competitive state of play on the Trans Tasman corridor and implications for consumers
• The evolution of JVs, alliances and partnerships and their impact on the New Zealand aviation market
• Impact of new aircraft technologies and the push to digitalisation and personalisation of travel
• The challenges of infrastructure and capacity provision for aviation and airports

Day 1 highlights:

Airline keynote by Air New Zealand Chief Revenue Officer Cam Wallace

A veteran at Air New Zealand, Cam Wallace has filled the role of Chief Revenue Officer since January 2014 after holding a number of other senior positions in the airline, including Group General Manager New Zealand and Pacific Islands and General Manager Australia.

Looking forward to 2025-2035-2045: the big picture outlook for aviation, travel and tourism in New Zealand

CAPA Centre for Aviation Chairman Emeritus Peter Harbison will moderate a panel of key New Zealand airline, airport and tourism decision makers in a discussion on the competitive market in New Zealand and the long term prospects for travel to, from and within New Zealand for the next 25 years.

Panel members include:

• 
  ATMC New Zealand, Chairman, Grant Bevin
• 
  Auckland Airport, Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Littlewood
• 
  Tourism Industry Aotearoa, Chief Executive Officer, Chris Roberts

Airline alliances - the real impact

In 2018 Air New Zealand made the decision to switch its trans Tasman partnership away from Virgin Australia to the much bigger Qantas, creating a formidable force in the Australasian market.

As the alliance prepares to celebrate its first anniversary at the end of October, Aviation Week's Senior Air Transport Editor, Adrian Schofield, will moderate a panel which will examine how the aviation landscape has changed.

The panel will also consider the impact on consumers and what other alliance adjustments will have to be made in the wake of the new partnership.

Panel members include:

• 
  Air New Zealand, Chief Strategy, Networks and Alliances, Nick Judd
• 
  CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Chairman Emeritus, Peter Harbison
  
• Commerce Commission, Head of Competition, Katie Rusbatch
• 
  The New Zealand Herald, Deputy Business Editor, Grant Bradley

The accommodation outlook and technology innovations education forum

Brought to you by Booking.com for Business, this moderated corporate travel education session will hear from key corporate travel programme leaders in New Zealand as they bring their "burning" questions related to their accommodation programmes.

Moderated by CAPA - Centre for Aviation Global Head of Corporate Travel Relations, Catherine Craig, the forum experts will weigh in on key concerns from regional corporate travel buyers.

Session members include:

• AECOM, Procurement and Travel Specialist ANZ, Jody Barrett
• 
  Ministry of Justice, Category Manager, Angela Williams
• 
  Booking.com, Key Account Manager, Nicole Wheat
• 
  Horwath HTL New Zealand, Director, Stephen Hamilton
• 
  IHG, Area Director of Sales & Marketing - IHG NZ, Kelly Eichholtz

Urban Air Mobility - changing the competitive landscape of short haul regional aviation as barriers to entry are lowered

New Zealand is a hotbed for the rapidly developing Urban Air Mobility market.

Zephyr Airworks, backed by Google billionaire Larry Page, with partners including Boeing and Air New Zealand, is developing its Cora air taxi in the country.

At the same time, national air services provider Airways New Zealand and its drone management subsidiary AirShare are among the leaders in safely integrating these new technologies into the existing transport system and modernising the aviation system for the automated age. This panel will assess the challenges of integrating traditional aviation with the disruptors, and the potential challenges and impacts this presents to the industry.

Panel members include:

• 
  AirShare, Chief Executive Officer, Trent Fulcher
• 
• ATMC New Zealand, Chairman, Grant Bevin
• 
  Christchurch International Airport, General Manager Corporate Affairs, Michael Singleton

Day 2 highlights:

Airline Q&A roundtable

Airline CEOS from the South Pacific will deliver their views on the most pressing issues facing aviation and travel in their region. Moderated by CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Chairman Emeritus, Peter Harbison, panel members include:

• Air Tahiti Nui, General Manager Pacific, Daniel Eggenberger
• 
  Air Vanuatu, Chief Executive Officer, Derek Nice
• 
  Association of South Pacific Airlines, Chief Executive Officer/Secretary General, George Faktaufon

Innovation and the aviation ecosystem

This session will explore key questions concerning the rapid evolution of technology within the aviation sector and how it can facilitate access to new travellers, improve passenger experience, and offer opportunities to enhance customer service. Airlines can no longer be passive adapters to change, but instead need to be innovators in their own markets.

Key questions to be addressed include:

• What do airlines need to do to evolve into proper travel retailers?
• What can they learn from other travel suppliers who excel in this arena?
• What distribution technologies are required to enable further airline growth?
• How will technology change the way a traveller interacts with airlines and airports?
• What technology trends are driving customer behaviours?
• How does the sector provide a seamless passenger journey? What does the sector need to do to offer comprehensive information encompassing not only the airport and air travel phase, but also the pre-departure and post-arrival stages?

For more information on the full agenda and speaker line-up, or to register to attend, visit the CAPA New Zealand Aviation & Corporate Travel Summit website.