Industry Insight Sessions agenda

Session A: Driving up yields - the options in a digital world

Speakers include: Soren Roos (Skyways), Michael Cunningham (SITA), Bob Goodwin (Gartner), Larry Michaels (SH&E)

Economic uncertainty and the changing mix between premium and economy passengers both have a strong impact on airline profitability. But as it becomes increasingly hard to cut costs, profitability clearly depends on an airline's ability to increase its overall revenues and yield.

How can IT help airlines to achieve these goals? What are the industry trends, the must-dos and the innovations required to drive up revenues and yields while delivering real competitive advantage?

In this Industry Insight Session our experts will discuss approaches to enhancing revenue and yield − looking at an airline's channel mix, ancillary revenues and unbundling, hybrid business models and revenue management practices. Importantly, our discussions will address the IT solutions required to support the approaches already taken or planned by airlines.

Session B: Digital Airports - operating on an industry communications infrastructure

Speakers include: Francis Rajan (Bangalore Airport), Benoit Delanoe (Orange Business Services), Benoit Verbaere (SITA)

As focal points for air transport operations, airports provide the ideal opportunity for new information and communication technologies (ICT) to make a highly visible impact on the air transport industry. In the next generation digital airport, technology will make a major contribution to improving the air transport industry's business performance, business agility and cost efficiencies. Wireless and mobile, infrastructure virtualization, application and content delivery - they all top the list of technologies that CIOs are grappling with to cope with ever-more demanding business operations and financial constraints.

At this Industry Insight Session, our experts' discussion will focus on how technologies like these can be leveraged in the airport environment, how a common approach could lower the cost of entry and benefit both airlines and airports, and how a more flexible service and business model could be established to support air transport industry requirements.

Session C: Baggage Improvement - fact or fiction?

Speakers include: Andrew Price (IATA), Jaime Van Gorp (Schiphol Airport), Lee Hock Lye (Star Alliance), Nick Gates (SITA)

After five years of constant increases, the air transport industry has in the last two years seen significant drops in the total number of mishandled bags. Is this a sign that airlines and airports have made the investments needed to collectively improve baggage management? Or is it the result of fewer bags being transported due to new checked-in baggage fees and a decrease in passengers travelling?

Our panel of industry experts in this Insight Session will examine the facts, including a view of mishandled baggage from the passenger perspective. While the figures may merit cautious optimism, the industry must maintain its focus on this multi-billion dollar problem, adopting new processes, technologies and solutions to confirm that the improvement is both fact and long lasting.

Session D: Digital Aircraft - airborne IT management enabling flexible applications

Speakers include: Peter White (FedEx), Joe McGoldrick (Aircraft Management Technologies), Philip Clinch (SITA)

New 'digital aircraft' are now coming off the production line equipped with generic IT systems hosting new Electronic Flight Bag and Electronic Log Book applications that communicate via Internet Protocol networks. With aircraft using the same operating systems and interfaces as ground computers, the industry requires a new aircraft IT management process that is not needed by existing aviation standard cockpit systems.

What are the implications? In this Industry Insight Session, our experts will show that as new, more open aircraft applications optimize aircraft operations they also introduce the need to manage aircraft platforms with generic IT components. Airborne platforms, domain name servers and routers all need to be integrated into airline's virtual private networks and internet domains using firewalls and authentication to protect aircraft system content and secure communications with specially configured ground IT systems.

Session E: Achieving seamless air travel - while meeting security needs

Speakers include: Stephan Copart (IATA, Fast Travel), Bobby Varma (Sarnoff), Thomas Marten (SITA)

In the area of security, what are the new threats, opportunities and challenges in the 21st century? How are these shaping our approaches to border management and its continued evolution? And how can we ensure the seamless facilitation of legitimate travel and trade between nations − without compromising safety and security in the air?

As air travel and the flow of people across borders continues to rise, the world's governments are becoming increasingly reliant on IT. Technology such as next generation traveller identity management, real-time advance passenger information and other approaches to rapid information exchange between governments − for analytic and interrogative risk assessment − will be indispensable as the industry strives to make air travel safer.

In this session, our experts will consider case studies, experiences and border management innovations in an increasingly digital world, including Advanced Passenger Processing (APP), Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), Biometrics identity management and other solutions. They will make the case that safety, security and passenger facilitation must be seen as complementary activities, and the seamless integration of these activities is critical to aviation growth and the protection of travellers.

Session F: Airline IT Trends Survey 2010 - how is technology supporting the airlines' vision for industry transformation?

Speakers include: Mark Pilling (Airline Business), Henry Harteveldt (Forrester), Juergen Koelle (SITA)

View the live webcast of this session

As the debut of the Airline IT Trends Survey results for 2010, this Industry Insight Session will capture the opinions of over 100 senior IT airline executives worldwide. Conducted by SITA and Airline Business, the Survey investigates airline IT spend and investment priorities for 2010 and beyond. We will examine key trends and developments in how airlines plan to use IT to increasingly transform their distribution models and improve passenger processing efficiencies. On top of that, our session will cover mobile solutions and the speed of adoption, as well as the entire end-to-end passenger experience − from home-to-plane-to-destination. Come and hear this expert panel analyze and discuss the airlines' survey responses and their vision for the next digital decade.