CAPA TV

The past few years have not been kind to large airports in Asia.  With regional lockdowns, a morass of COVID-19 travel requirements and stubbornly closed international borders, the recovery in the region has trailed behind the rest of the world.  

However, as lockdowns have ended and borders reopened passenger traffic in the region has started to return to more ‘normal’ volumes. In 2023 airports have enjoyed a steep rebound in traffic, with travellers eager to return to destinations that have been cut off to them in the past few years, or to explore new destinations. 

Recovery in the region has been far from uniform though. Domestic markets have generally performed well. The return of international travel in the region, though, has been much more uneven. As in the rest of the world, short haul and leisure travel has come back quickly, but intercontinental and business traffic has lagged well behind. 

A full return to pre-pandemic traffic volumes across the region is still a little way ahead. In the interim, the region will be a hotbed of aviation activity as connectivity is restored, networks are rebuilt, and new traveller preferences are catered to. 

Traveller demands and expectations of airports have also shifted. In response, airports have had to become more agile, embracing new systems that are personalised to the individual passenger, bringing on on-demand services, contactless journeys and other changes to the passenger experience. 

• What are the key challenges for airports across the region? 

• How has the demand for services – from airlines and travellers – changed since the start of the pandemic? 

• What are the priorities for airports with the ongoing shift to digitalisation? 

• What physical changes to airport spaces are occurring as airports re-define the passenger experience? 

AirAsia Berhad, CEO, Riad Asmat, spoke to CAPA TV at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2023 in Brisbane about latest industry trends and company developments. 

CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.   

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad, Senior GM, Strategy, Megat Ardian Wira Mohd Aminuddin, spoke to CAPA TV at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2023 in Brisbane about latest industry trends and company developments. 

CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.   

Malaysia Aviation Group, Group Managing Director, Datuk Capt Izham Ismail, spoke to CAPA TV at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2023 in Brisbane about latest industry trends and company developments. 

CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.   

Batik Air, Group Strategy Director, Chandran Rama Muthy, spoke to CAPA TV at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation Summit 2023 in Brisbane about latest industry trends and company developments. 

CAPA Events are hosted in key markets around the world and attract the highest calibre of thought leaders and decision makers in the aviation and travel industry. Delegates are provided with unprecedented access to the latest data, insights and trends from our global team, in addition to valuable networking opportunities with executives across all sectors of the aviation and travel industry. Review CAPA’s full events calendar here.   

As travel has returned across the Asia Pacific, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that consumer expectations and demands of the traveller are changing across all stages of the journey. COVID-19 has produced a transformation in expectations about the travel process for consumers in the region, from how they research, plan and book a trip, to where they want to travel, who they want to travel with and what they want to spend their money on. 

Given the regional lockdowns and uncoordinated nature of border closures and travel bans imposed during the pandemic, it’s unsurprising that a degree of uncertainty and caution prevails for international travel. Asia Pacific travellers have also been slower to abandon concerns around health and safety, have shortened their planning and booking windows and are retaining heightened demands concerning the level of timely information and support made available to them through the travel process.  

COVID-19 also accelerated a range of ongoing issues: Regional consumers continue to pivot towards online & direct sales channels and mobile booking; travellers are becoming more independent, particularly in younger generations; consumers are more conscious about sustainable travel and tourism options and their personal impact when the travel.   

Technology is at the heart of the air travel sector’s response to these disruptive changes. The industry is pushing digital solutions to facilitate new preferences and ways of interacting with travel.  

• What are the key technologies that Asia Pacific travel firms need to adopt to meet changing regional travel trends?  

• What are the technology priorities for the traveller through different stages of the journey? 

• With the rise of the ‘always on’ traveller and greater desire to stay informed, what information does the regional traveller want, and what can they do without? 

• How are travel research/planning, booking and payment trends changing? 

• Should regional travel companies be pioneering technology development to create bespoke solutions, partnering with third party firms/using established systems or outsourcing development completely? 

• Are regional travel companies falling behind, and if so, what can they do to keep up with new trends? 

In this session we hear from some of the Sustainability Award winners this year. The winners across the global and regional categories are as a result of their leading rankings from the CAPA Envest Global Environmental Sustainability Benchmarking Report 2023, while additional categories were selected from a rigorous judging process led by CAPA’s internal analysts.

The category winners have established themselves as leaders among their peers, providing a model of operation that others can aspire to.

Vivian is the Head of Sales - Asia for CAE Flight Operations Solutions and focuses on helping airlines harness the power of technology to improve operational performance, profitability and passenger experience. Vivian spent the past decade working with multiple start-ups and establishing airlines across the globe to introduce digitization within their ops, crew, dispatch, maintenance & engineering functions. He was previously the Sales Leader - Asia & Eastern Europe with Merlot Aero, an airline crew operations and optimization software company prior to which he held business development roles at Laminaar Aviation Infotech, Solutions Aero & ENGRAV Systems. Vivian holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Aircraft & Rocket Design from National Aerospace University, Ukraine.

More than a third of global air cargo touches the Asia Pacific, with the sector holding greater importance for local carriers than those in other regions. During COVID-19, Asia Pacific carriers turned to cargo as a much-needed lifeline, supported by the rapidly developing eCommerce sector and temporary shifts in consumer demands. However, the uptick has only been temporary. Air cargo demand has waned through the latter part of 2022 and into the first half of 2023. As capacity has returned to more normal levels, yields are returning towards long-term averages.

• How is the Asia Pacific cargo sector managing the recent cargo downturn?

• With China’s economic engine continuing to gather speed, supply chains being reknitted and economic headwinds expected to ease in the second half of 2023, what is the outlook for the Asia Pacific air cargo market?

• What are the long-term changes that COVID-19 brought to the regional cargo sector? What are the short-term trends that are expected to disappear?

With China’s borders now re-opened to international travel, waves of outbound travel are expected to build in the market. After almost three years of restricted travel, Chinese travellers are back but their demands and expectations are not the same as before the pandemic. Chinese travellers have initially opted for ‘safe’ markets, including Hong Kong, Macau and select regional destinations. COVID-19 has also accelerated the swing away from large, organised tour groups and towards individual and small group travel with freer itineraries.

• As Chinese outbound travel continues to grow, what impact will it have on regional tourism and travel markets? What are the next big destinations for Chinese travellers?

• With China’s large state-owned airline resting both short-haul and long-haul connectivity, how will regional capacity and networks be affected?

• How are the priorities of the Chinese outbound travel market in the post pandemic period? How can air transport providers and destinations improve their attractiveness to the outbound market.