CAPA Asia Aviation Summit & Awards for Excellence

• Changi Airport Group, Managing Director Air Hub Development, Ching Kiat Lim

• Star Alliance, CEO, Jeffrey Goh
• KornFerry, Partner, Torbjorn Karlsson

CAPA caught up with Star Alliance, CEO, Jeffrey Goh on the sidelines of the Asia Aviation Summit in November 2022. Hear exclusively from Jeffrey Goh as we discuss the expectations of customers transitioning into post-pandemic travel and the new-norms that are here to stay.

Aviation Week Network, Auckland bureau chief, Adrian Schofield

The most challenging period the industry has faced during the pandemic, Adrian Schofield outlines where the industry is now compared to pre-pandemic levels and the forecast for 2023.

Textron, Director, SkyCourier Asia, Lachlan Cullen

Lachlan Cullen introduces us to a brand new aircraft the Cessna SkyCourier and the company that manufactures the aircraft Textron, which is a regional airline feeder aircraft. 

Expedia Group, Vice President for Air, James Marshall

The minimum requirements of travel for the passenger have clearly evolved over the past two years. James Marshall outlines how the traveller journey has changed and the standards airlines must meet to deliver a great traveller experience.

• SriLankan Airlines, CEO, Richard Nuttall
• ASM Australasia, Director, Jayne Davey

CAPA caught up with Sri Lankan Airlines, CEO, Richard Nutall on the sidelines of the Asia Aviation Summit in November 2022. Hear exclusively from Richard Nuttall as we discuss the tourism growth into Sri Lanka, along with challenges faced in 2022 and an update on the post-pandemic recovery.

Despite the proliferation of LCCs over the past 20 years, the short haul intra-regional market in the Asia Pacific remains underdeveloped. A part of the problem is fleet composition - compared to markets like Europe and the Americas, there is a dearth of turboprops and regional jets in the Asia Pacific.

What do regional aircraft makers need to do to break into the region? How can OEMs like Embraer and ATR attract Asia Pacific customers for their aircraft?

Is Southeast Asia, and the Asia Pacific more broadly, set-up to handle short haul regional operations? What infrastructure, regulatory and market impediments exist in the market?

How can smaller airports work with operators to create successful short haul regional operations?

What lessons can the Asia Pacific learn from regions such as Latin America and Africa, where short-haul and regional aircraft make up a greater portion of fleets and regional connectivity is superior?

Moderator: National University of Singapore, Professor of Aviation Law, Alan Tan

Panel: 

• Cambodia Airports, CCO, Stephen King
• Embraer Asia Pacific, Director of Market Intelligence, Fernando Grau
• ATR, Head of Commercial APAC, Jean-Pierre Clercin

The Asia Pacific response to COVID-19 saw the imposition of tighter and longer restrictions than in any other market – barriers that continue to impact the momentum of the recovery of travel in the region. The reopening of the region has been poorly coordinated and cautious, but positive changes seem to be happening in recent months.

The question now is what are the challenges in ramping up the supply side? Are airlines able to return aircraft fast enough, and how much of a pain point is staffing?

• What is the process for regional governments to improve their coordination on health and travel criteria, to produce rules that are clear for all stakeholders?
• When travel restrictions are imposed, how can aviation stakeholders ensure that they are part of the process in determining their extent?
• What does the travel industry need to do to ensure that any restrictions follow best practices and are removed in a timely manner?
• Are the system bottlenecks we are seeing (travel disruption etc) purely a symptom of the recovery phase, and will these issues ease in the medium term?
• What is the industry going to look like once things have settled down again into steady state?

Moderator: Aviation Week, Senior Air Transport Editor - Asia-Pacific, Adrian Schofield

Panel: 

• PATA, CEO, Liz Ortiguera
• AAPA, Director General, Subhas Menon
• Changi Airport Group, Managing Director Air Hub Development, Ching Kiat Lim
• Cebu Pacific, CCO, Alexander Lao

• Flyr Labs, VP of Growth, Matt Brown

Matt Brown provides the fresh perspective approach to helping airlines and travel partners solve commercial issues and problems they face in everyday challenges that present themselves.

• Wizz Air, CEO, Jozsef Varadi
• APAC Network, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder, Oriel Morrison

CAPA caught up with Wizz Air, CEO, Jozsef Varadi on the sidelines of the Asia Aviation Summit in November 2022. Hear exclusively from Jozsef Varadi as we discuss the importance of Sustainability moving forward and Wizz Air's Sustainability goals and ambitions.

AirAsia Group, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mun Ching Yap interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

• Envest, Executive Director, David Wills

The second edition of the CAPA-Envest Sustainability Benchmarking Report is now here. David Willis takes us through the pressures of creating a sustainability focus within the industry and the journey to find and report the data.

Importantly, it provides an independently evaluated “airline sustainability rating” system, based upon a range of key emissions metrics and utilising a range of publicly available data points. It also highlights the numerous challenges presented in the post COVID-19 recovery and seeks to provide a clear and consistent set of fact-based metrics to assist stakeholders in their industry engagement and decision-making.

AAPA, Director General, Subhas Menon interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

AWS, Head of EMEA Travel Industry, Nikiforos Chatzopoulos interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

BCD Travel, Senior VP Sales APAC, Ben Wedlock interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

Embraer Asia Pacific, Director of Market Intelligence, Fernando Grau interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

Star Alliance, CEO, Jeffrey Goh interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

Etihad, Head of Sustainability & Business Excellence, Mariam AlQubaisi interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

Etihad, VP APAC, Joanna Patterson interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

SriLankan Airlines, CEO, Richard Nuttall interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

Gautam Shekar, SVP for APAC, IBS Software interviewed on the sidelines of the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit 2022.

SAF is the ticket to true sustainable growth for aviation, but the Asia Pacific runs the risk of falling well behind in the development of production infrastructure. Relatively few regional carriers have committed to commercial offtake agreements and even fewer Asia Pacific nations have developed frameworks that promote and support SAF uptake. Much work needs to be undertaken in the next few years to create an environment that supports the aviation sector in expanding SAF use.

• What lessons can Asia Pacific countries draw from Europe and the Americas on promoting airlines and airports to use SAF?
• Do Asia Pacific customers actually care about SAF and sustainability more broadly?
• What are the options for SAF development in Asia? Will China and Japan dominate, or can states like Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore become hubs for SAF in the region?
• What are the risks if the Asia Pacific fails to develop a proper SAF industry?
• Are European style mandates the way to promote SAF use, or should more cooperative and commercially friendly initiatives be undertaken?

Moderator: Envest, Executive Director, David Wills

Panel:

• AirAsia Group, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mun Ching Yap
• IndiGo Airlines, Associate Director ESG & Sustainability, Prateek Sengupta
• SriLankan Airlines, CEO, Richard Nuttall 
• Etihad, Head of Sustainability & Business Excellence, Mariam AlQubaisi

Consumers are at the heart of digital transformation and the pandemic has only accelerated the shift to digital retailing and e-commerce, backed by sophisticated IT platforms. And we have seen how effective the non-travel online retailers, like Amazon, have been – and they’ve grown their wallet share substantially.

These new players have gathered more data and learned more about us over the past two years than ever before and the worry is, for a heavily indebted and struggling airline industry – can it keep up and regain its fair share of the ‘economic wallet’ and unlock new revenue streams, as well as meeting shifting customer needs.

Airlines are at a disadvantage in that their starting point are often ageing tech systems of IT platforms, software and hardware. Added to this, an ever-more demanding customer, who wants greater ticketing flexibility, instant refunds, better service, disruption recovery that’s fast and effective and a seamless online and journey experience. The digital experience expectation also extends into the role of the airline’s loyalty programme, as well as its alliances and partnerships.

New selling strategies are also going to be key for the region. From branded fares to subscription services, airlines are shifting the ways they sell tickets.

• How is the distribution chain adapting to changing strategies?
• What are other trends in selling that are emerging that will work well specifically in Asia?

Moderator: Skyscanner, VP Commercial, Hugh Aitken

Panel:

• AWS, Head of EMEA Travel Industry, Nikiforos Chatzopoulos
• Sabre, Head of Sales, Asia Pacific, John Chapman
• Flyr Labs, VP of Growth, Matt Brown

There has been a lot said about the Low Cost Long Haul model in previous years however it seems like it is making a comeback in a post-COVID world. The industry is beginning to talk about the model being well-suited to the post-recovery landscape.

In this discussion, we revisit the Low Cost Long Haul market in Asia, review the model, pre-pandemic, and predict why a resurgence is happening now.

• Has the LCLH model fully proven itself yet, and what will be the challenges to success?
• In what ways will the market be more conducive to long-haul LCC operations now?

Moderator: Aviation Week, Senior Air Transport Editor - Asia-Pacific, Adrian Schofield

Panel:

• VietJet Air, Member of Board, Cuong Chu
• Lufthansa Technik, Sales Strategy Manager, Beenash Qureshi
• ASM Australasia, Director, Hans Mitterlechner

As the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided and become an endemic disease it is having less of an influence over global air travel. But airlines are still having to trim flight schedules as supply chain constraints become the bigger concern than virus transmission.

The most acute problem has been a shortage of labour. From pilot shortages at airlines to the slow accreditation of ground staff at airports, these issues are having a significant impact on planning for the future – within the industry and by consumers.

The global pandemic has exposed many problems in airline and airport operational departments and remains a major management challenge. Put simply, the return of travellers has proved more difficult for the industry than anyone thought it would be.

• What are the problems and how are airlines adjusting?
• Is this all an over-reaction to accepted challenges ramping up operations after the industry’s biggest ever crisis?
• Are these operational issues forcing some airlines to make alternative strategic decisions?

Moderator: KornFerry, Partner, Torbjorn Karlsson
Panel:

• Lufthansa Group Airlines, VP Asia Pacific, Elise Becker
• ALPA-SIN, Vice President of the Technical Committee, Capt. Jaffar Bin Hassan

The Asia Pacific is the world’s factory, accounting for more than 40% of global exports of manufactured goods in 2021. With the COVID-19 induced disruption to shipping and supply chains, air cargo had a moment in the sun, reporting two consecutive years of record revenue. With passenger travel largely absent, air cargo was one of the few bright spots for Asia Pacific regional carriers in 2020 and 2021.

However, as passenger traffic comes back and shipping begins to regain some of its competitiveness, cargo sector revenues and profits are slowly coming back to earth. Worse still for Asia Pacific airlines, traditional Western export markets are increasingly moving to bring manufacturing onshore, particularly for high value goods. Geopolitics is also hurting the sector, as the relationship between China and the West becomes ever more frosty and barriers to trade are erected.

• What is the outlook for air cargo in the Asia Pacific?
• How can regional carriers benefit from major trends such as eCommerce, growing Asia Pacific regional consumption and ongoing supply chain instability?
• What does the growing regionalization trend mean for air cargo. Are agreements like the new Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) going to support regional trade and air cargo?

Moderator: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Jae Woon (June) Lee
Panel:

• Cathay Pacific, Regional Head of Cargo, Southeast Asia, Siddhant Iyer
• Teleport, CEO, Pete Chareonwongsak
• IBS Software, SVP for APAC, Gautam Shekar

Short haul electric aircraft offer potentially the greatest revolution in aviation since the introduction of the jet engine. With the promise of helicopter-like performance and car-like costs to operate, the EVTOL concept is no longer just the playground of a few ambitious start-ups. Major aerospace OEMs, global technology firms, major car manufacturers and others are now investing billions of dollars in what they hope will be the next major frontier for aviation.

Moderator: WebinTravel, Founder, Siew Hoon Yeoh
Panel:

• Eve Air Mobility, Business Development Lead (APAC), Augustine Tai
• FlyNow, CCO, Andreas Schaaf
• Skyports, Head of Asia Pacific Yun-Yuan Tay
• Vertical Aerospace, Head of Commercial, Asia Pacific, Derek Cheng

Highlights from the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit & Awards event 2022.

Bringing together three events under one roof, this two-day event will include the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit and CTC Corporate Travel Summit & Sustainability Awards, as well as the coveted CAPA Asia Pacific Aviation Sustainability Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner.

The CAPA Asia Aviation Summit is part of CAPA’s regional summit series and is highly regarded as an industry benchmark event across Asia, offering thought leadership, valuable networking opportunities, and in-depth insight on the issues and trends that shape the local and global airline industry.

After more than two years since the last regional Asia summit, this event is expected to attract hundreds of senior aviation and transport executives, airports, political leaders, industry experts and suppliers to Singapore.

The two-day summit will tap into the post-COVID-19 aviation industry across Asia to address the latest developments, challenges and strategic issues, plus include a new injection of stimulating discussion on the evolving LCC market.

Meanwhile, the CAPA Awards for Excellence will recognise airlines for their strategic excellence and leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and their ongoing plans for recovery.