CAPA Airline Leader Summit World

Lisbon, Portugal

11-12 Dec 2025

Day 2 - 12 December, 2025
09:00-09:10	Chairperson's Welcome
09:10-09:40	Airline Leader Interview, KLM CEO Marjan Rintel KLM, CEO, Marjan Rintel KornFerry, Senior Client Partner, Michael Bell
09:40- 10:30	Boardroom Conversation - The end of cyclicality? Managing downturns, acting rationally and not waiting for recovery Cyclicality has long been a bugbear of the airline industry. When the speed of travel growth has slowed down, airlines have historically witnessed steep losses. Their responses have generally been to trim schedules and networks, reduce workforces and reduce spending until good times arrive again. However, the latest outlooks for the industry stand in defiance of these historical trends. While the industry faces more than its fair share of challenges, overall expectations have remained healthy and positive even in the face of lowered expectations around economic growth, global political uncertainty and retreating confidence in consumers. Has the airline industry finally managed to crack the code when it comes to the cyclicality of the business, or is there something else going on? What are the key lessons that the sector has drawn from recent crises and downturns? What are the weak-points that are still yet to be addressed? Given that no-one knows how long a crisis is going to last or how deep it will go, how does the industry respond proportionately in the face of challenges? With such volumes of information available to airline leaders, what do they look at and where do they turn when a crisis is brewing. Are AI business and decision making tools at a point where they can help in such situations, or is there a risk of garbage-in, garbage-out and being overwhelmed by the details? Moderator: HEICO Aerospace, Senior VP Government & Industry Affairs, Alex de Gunten Panel: Air Serbia, CEO, Jiri Marek Gulf Air, CEO, Martin Gauss Air Canada, Vice-President, Network Planning and Global Sales, Alexandre Lefèvre Norse Atlantic Airways, Deputy CEO, Kristin Berthelsen
10:35-11:25	Sustainability - it is time for airlines and the industry to update its thinking? Sustainability represents the biggest long-term external challenge for the aviation industry. The airline industry has set itself lofty targets, culminating in an ambition to achieve 'net zero' carbon emissions by 2050. At the moment however, the industry appears to be failing to achieve interim environmental targets around sustainable aviation fuel use, operational efficiency and reducing its emissions. With frustrating building over shortages of new aircraft and SAF, a lack of infrastructure-side efficiency enhancements and difficulties in disparate political approaches, a few airlines have now very publicly announced they will not be able to meet sustainability targets they have committed to. Are we at a tipping point in aviation's sustainability challenge, or is it time for the industry to reconvene and reset its thinking around interim targets and the costs of how to get there? How does the industry come together to make the system as efficient as it can be? Are there 'easy wins' that the sector can turn to? The cost of sustainability is a much talked about topic. What sort of price premium can the industry adapt to in order to pay for sustainability, without reducing demand for flying? Are short-term national and regional targets, like those set by the UK and the EU, potentially counterproductive for the industry? Are regulatory approaches like SAF mandates and bans on short haul flying actually going to achieve anything? While the industry is desperate for more SAF, more aircraft and straighter flight paths, progress in these areas often fails to meet airline demands. How does the aviation sector communicate that while sustainability presents an enormous challenge, it also presents an enormous opportunity? Moderator: Atmosphere Research Group, President, Henry Harteveldt Panel: ATAG, Executive Director, Haldane Dodd EUROCONTROL, Head of Sustainability, Marylin Bastin A4E, Managing Director, Ourania Georgoutsakou Kenya Airways, COO, George Kamal
11:25-11:30	2026 World Summit Announcement
11:30-12:00	Coffee break & Networking
12:00-12:40	Global aviation's unbalanced outlook The outlook for global aviation is largely positive - traffic is growing, profits are stable and cost growth is largely manageable thanks to relief on fuel prices. While things are positive for the industry in aggregate, it is a much different story region-to-region. North America is beset with uncertainty thanks to the radical revision to a century of US trade policy, keeping traffic growth subdued and profits in stasis. European airlines are more confident about traffic growth, although they face their own issues when it comes to regulation, sustainability and infrastructure efficiency. Latin America has gone through a round of rapid traffic growth and airline consolidation, but challenges around liberalisation and regulation are impediments to regional profitability. Asia Pacific travel continues to surge even in the face of persistent challenges around liberalisation, infrastructure congestion, competition, aircraft availability and MRO capacity. Middle East airlines remain vulnerable to externalities and political interference, with a series of regional conflicts playing havoc with operations and finances in the region. Africa leads the world in terms of traffic growth, however its airlines face challenges around liberalisation, scale and limited availability of new aircraft, which is exacerbated by intense competition from airlines outside the region. This panel will convene leaders of airlines from aviation's different regions to provide insight on the character and challenges that their regions provide. Moderator: Air Transport World, Editor in Chief, Karen Walker Panel: Sun Country, CEO, Jude Bricker Kenya Airways, CEO, Allan Kilavuka Avianca, CEO, Frederico Pedreira TUI Airline, CCO, Peter Glade
12:45-13:30	Global aviation regulation - a view from regional aviation associations Airline associations play a unique role in global aviation, attempting to provide a unified voice of advocacy for their member carriers while coordinating and balancing disparate requirements within their membership. Industry bodies also play an important role and often unsung role in aviation regulation - not only do they work to communicate the needs of their members to governments, but they are there to help ensure that regulation that is passed supports the viability of aviation and to build a united front when it does not. This unique discussion will bring together major airline associations to discuss the state of aviation regulation globally, what they can do when faced with counterproductive regulations and the unique outlooks for their regions. Moderator: Holland & Knight, Partner, Anita Mosner Panel: AAPA, Director General, Subhas Menon ERA, Director General, Montserrat Barriga ALTA, CEO, Peter Cerdá
13:30-13:35	Chairperson's wrap up
13:30-14:30	Closing Lunch & Networking