The World Aviation Festival returns to Lisbon in 2026, and this year’s agenda sets the stage for another dynamic, high-impact event. Featuring a host of speakers from the world’s leading airlines and airports, as well tracks brand-new for 2026, the conference will be packed with unmissable insights from across the aviation industry. 

Confirmed speakers already include representatives from Emirates, oneworld, Aena, Delta, Copenhagen Airport, alongside a bustling exhibition floor filled with industry innovators and disruptive startups. Some sessions you won’t want to miss:  

Keynote CEO Panel: Writing the next chapter of aviation history in an age of uncertainty 

  • Luís Rodrigues, Chief Executive Officer, TAP AIR PORTUGAL 
  • Adrian Neuhauser, Chief Executive Officer, Abra Group 
  • Roberto Alvo, CEO, LATAM Airlines Group 
  • Con Korfiatis,  Chief Executive Officer, Oman Air 

Presentation: Building effective agentic strategies for the enterprise 

  • Kushal Pasari, Director – Data Engineering, GenAI/ML, United Airlines 

CEO Panel: Strategy, competition and innovation in a disruptive environment 

  • Abdelhamid Addou, Chairman of the Board & CEO, Royal Air Maroc 
  • Joerg Eberhart, Chief Executive Officer, ITA-Airways 
  • Jiri Marek, Chief Executive Officer, Air Serbia 
  • George Kamal, Group Managing Director & CEO, Kenya Airways 
  • Tero Taskila, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, beOnd 
  • Theo Panagiotoulias, Chief Executive Officer, Star Alliance 

Presentation: Legacy to Leader: What cultural and digital shift does the industry need for a modern retail transition? 

  • Julio Rodriguez, Chief Commercial Strategy Officer, IAG 

Panel: Sharing insights into embedding Agentic AI across the Aviation business 

  • Sameh Ben Fredj, Lead Data Scientist, Emirates 
  • Virgile Boëssé, Air France KLM 
  • Georg Reuber, Head of GenAI, Lufthansa Industry Solutions 

Presentation: Sharing our experience of innovating to manage fleetwide disruption 

  • Carlos Faxas, Managing Director, Ops Modernization and Tech Enablement, Air Canada 

**NEW FOR 2026**: Airline and Airport Collaboration track

Panel: Building joint operational resilience – how do airports, airlines and handlers move beyond parallel responses? 

  • Ali Rashed, Advisor to CEO, Bahrain Airport Company 
  • Al Titterington, Terminal Operations Director, Birmingham Airport LTD 
  • Ying McPherson, President, North America Region, Unifi Aviation 
  • Marc-Philippe Lumpé, Chief Operations Officer, Air Transat 
  • Istvan Szabo, Chief Operations Officer, Berlin Brandenburg Airpor 
  • Ryan Abram, Chief Operating Officer – Global Airport Operations, dnata 

Panel: Who owns the passenger & captures the value – and are airports and airlines ready for co-ownership? 

  • Arturs Saveljevs, Board member and CCO, Riga International Airport 
  • Ambar Franco, VP Customer experience, Star Alliance 
  • Iyad Hindiyeh, CDO, GAL – GMR Group 
  • Gerri Sinclair, VP, Commercial Data Integration and Optimization, Vancouver International Airport 
  • Mihai Tica, CIO, Dusseldorf Airport 

With over 600 speakers set to hit the stage at WAF26, explore the agenda here to get the full scope of the event. And don’t forget to register to confirm your attendance! 

For content from World Aviation Festival 2025, see: