Video of the week: How airline CEOs are rewriting the playbook for volatility

At the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - World in Dec-2025, a rare, candid boardroom-style conversation brought together airline leaders operating at the sharp end of today's volatility cycle.

Moderated by WestJet Vice Chairman Alex Cruz, the discussion featured Anko van der Werff (SAS Scandinavian Airlines), Martin Gauss (Gulf Air) and Campbell Wilson (Air India), each navigating markedly different geographies yet confronting strikingly similar structural pressures.

The backdrop is unforgiving: slowing global growth, persistently high interest rates, elevated fuel and financing costs, currency instability and deepening geopolitical fragmentation. Layered on top are acute supply chain constraints - from delayed aircraft deliveries to extended engine shop visits - that continue to cap growth and inflate unit costs.

Against this landscape, the panel explored how airlines with traditionally thin margins can protect balance sheets, sustain networks and retain strategic optionality.

Drawing on current, real-world challenges, the session examined fuel and FX risk management in an era of amplified price swings; inflationary pressures across labour, maintenance and airport charges; and the emerging reality that geopolitics increasingly shapes network economics.

The executives also addressed the growing divergence between mature markets facing demand fragility and emerging markets - most notably South Asia and parts of the Middle East - where structural growth remains intact but operational and political risks are higher.

This session offers senior aviation leaders a grounded, experience-led perspective on how airline CEOs are recalibrating long-term planning, capital allocation and fleet utilisation to survive - and selectively invest - through a prolonged period of uncertainty.