CAPA's high level aviation strategy Summit and Awards gala dinner in Singapore, 13-15 October

The three-day summit will open with a one-day LCC Congress, followed by a Full Service Airline focus on Day 2. The final day will focus on the future of Aviation and Corporate Travel in Asia. Some 300+ delegates are expected, with over 50 airlines and 40 airports to be represented. A large number of corporate travel buyers will be in attendance on the final day.

The full agenda is provided below.

Ultra early bird discounts are available until 31 August - register here and save $300 off the full rate.

Confirmed Speakers (more to be announced shortly) AAPA Director General Andrew Herdman AirAsia Group Head, Ground & Inflight Operations Steven Dickson AirAsia CEO North Asia James Rhee AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani Air New Zealand Regional General Manager Asia Sandeep Bahl Airport Authority Hong Kong (former CEO) Stanley Hui Berjaya Air CEO Eddie Leong Bravo CEO Jason Bitter Brand Karma CEO Morris Sim CarTrawler CCO Michael Cunningham Emirates Senior Divisional Vice President Commercial Operations East Barry Brown Facebook e-Commerce & Travel Strategist Simrat Sawhney Finavia CEO Kari Savolainen Firefly CEO Ignatius Ong FMI CEO Bruce Nobles Garuda Indonesia, CEO, Emirsyah Satar* Heidrick & Struggles Partner Con Korfiatis Hong Kong Airlines Assistant Director, Commercial Michael Burke Hong Kong Express CEO Andrew Cowen IATA Regional VP Asia Pacific Conrad Clifford Ince & Co LLP Head of Commercial Aviation Hugh O'Donovan Jeju Air CEO Ken Choi 9 Air President Guangping Ji Korn Ferry Senior Client Partner, Global Industrial Markets, Asia Pacific Torbjorn Karlsson LEK Consulting Managing Director John Thomas National University of Singapore Professor of Aviation Law Alan Khee-Jin Tan NOK Air CEO Patee Sarasin Nyras Senior VP David Huttner Peach Aviation Ltd Representative Director & CEO Shinichi Inoue Rio Tinto Global Category Lead, Travel & Expense Management Kurt Knackstedt Sabre Vice President Solutions Marketing Stan Boyer Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson SITA Director of SITA Lab Renaud Irminger Skyjet President & CEO Joel Mendoza SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor Vanilla Air President Tomonori Ishii West Air Chairman and CEO Zhu Tao YATES+Partners Chairman and CEO Keith Yates More high level speakers to be announced shortly * Subject to final confirmation

Venue: Capella Sentosa Singapore

13 October 2014: Day 1, LCC Congress

09.00: Welcome

09.05: Introduction: The Asian Aviation Transformation

CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman

Over the past decade, Asia's airline industry has changed beyond recognition, largely due to the arrival of LCCs and also because of the role being played by the Gulf carriers. In 2004, no full service airline believed that LCCs would be able to survive in Asia's international markets. To imagine they would account for nearly two thirds of capacity in Southeast Asia was beyond anyone's wildest imagination - or three quarters of India's market, or 92% of the Philippines'.

There is still movement ahead; within North Asia only 10% of seats are on LCCs.

And it not simply the scale of the change. It also relates to the many LCC subsidiaries of full service airlines, the cross border joint ventures, and most recently the long-haul-to-short-haul connectivity being demonstrated by the AirAsia group.
Where do we go to from here!?

09.25: China opens the doors to LCCs

In late 2013, the CAAC announced a new policy designed to maintain growth and vibrancy in the Chinese market. This was to allow the formal establishment of LCCs within the country, where previously they were unwelcome. This could be transformational for the region, as powerful Chinese-based LCCs emerge.

09.50: Keynote: West Air's transformation into an LCC

10.10: Coffee Break & Airline Marketplace

11.10: The door opens to LCCs in China and North Asia

12.15: Panel discussion: Innovate or die - Out-of-the-box solutions for handling industry disruption

• What radical innovations are influencing customer behaviour?
• What new technologies are airlines embracing to increase revenue, reduce costs and improve customer service?
• How do airlines overcome the stumbling blocks to innovation?

13.00: Lunch

14.00: Asian LCCs - insights from across the region

Despite common features, each country and sub-region has its own special features, as have the LCCs established there. Some are subsidiaries of full service airlines (flag carriers), some are cross border JVs, some are part of one of the major LCC groups. We look at the issues each is facing and how they are adapting to their own special environments.

• What are the common issues and challenges facing LCCs across Asia?
• How is each airline or group addressing them?
• Will only the major group airlines survive?
• Are there too many aircraft currently on order?
• On what terms can the long-haul LCCs prosper?

15.00: Coffee Break

15.40: Keynote Address: The Peach ripens

Peach Aviation Limited, Shinichi Inoue, CEO

16.00: Panel discussion: Successful sales, marketing and distribution strategies and solutions in Asia

• Asia's carriers are behind in their use of social media compared with US/Europe. Who is benefiting from an advanced social media strategy?
• Travel search and mobile - how quickly is it growing and what are the hurdles to airline distribution and booking via mobile?

17.00: Cocktail Reception Hosted by Clyde & Co

14 October 2014: Day 2, CAPA Asia Aviation Summit

09.00: Welcome by conference Chairman

09.05: Keynote Address (tba)

09.40: The full service airline model in Asia: under stress, but adapting to survive

The combination of short-haul LCCs, the Gulf airlines and newly emerging long-haul low cost airlines is raising a whole new array of challenges for what have long been the world's leading premium airlines. Leveraging the hub role means working with airports and refocusing networks through partnerships. What other strengths can full service carriers leverage as they refocus their strategies in this new and changing environment?

• How disruption is harming profitability
• Dealing with "excess capacity"
• Using partnerships to expand network coverage
• Maximising cargo revenues
• Working with subsidiaries to cover the market
• The strategy behind using different brands and avoiding brand pollution
• • Getting route selection right to avoid cannibalisation
  • Separation of management to ensure cost discipline
  • Connecting services between the different brands
  • The benefits of hunting in groups: joint procurement, greater market coverage...

10.30: Coffee Break & Airline Marketplace

11.05: ASEAN liberalisation: open skies or just blue sky?

2015 was to be the major turning point in ASEAN airline liberalisation. But it looks unlikely now to bring more than a mild improvement. Much of the liberalisation has already been achieved, mainly through market changes such as cross border JVs. ASEAN was supposed to open up air services between smaller, non-gateway cities, but Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines - each with numerous such cities - are not prepared to exchange mutual access rights. One outcome will be that third country airlines eg from China will gain much better access than the ASEAN airlines. But that isn't what the framers of the open skies agreement were thinking of.

• Are expectations of growth in ASEAN over-optimistic and have Southeast Asia's airlines over-ordered aircraft as a result?
• What lessons are to be learned from the European experience
• Myanmar and Vietnam have seen a surge in aviation activity. What will determine the winners in these new markets?
• Will protectionism rear its head in Asia, reversing the gains of the past decade?

12.10: China and North Asian airlines' long-haul network planning

As market access restrictions are gradually reduced, North Asian airlines are beginning to develop new long term plans. This involves the use of new anti-trust immunised JVs, new partnership relations, both inside and outside their global alliance memberships - or simply going it alone.

• How are the new networks likely to evolve
• Will the 787 and the A350 reshape the pattern of travel
• Which regional points are likely to achieve new long-haul service by 2020
• How are European and North American airlines approaching the market now
• Which new hubs will evolve in China and elsewhere
• Airport congestion and new airport construction
• Who will be the main beneficiaries of China's outbound growth

13.00: Lunch

14.00: How are the Gulf airlines influencing Asian long haul competition

The sixth freedom centre of gravity has shifted west to the Gulf for much of Southeast Asia and, to a lesser extent, North Asia. The ingredients of the Gulf carriers' success appear to make them invulnerable.

• The medium term outlook
• How should Asian airlines respond
• Is there room for partnerships with the Gulf airlines

14.55: Coffee

15.25: Can airports and distribution providers meet the new hybrid needs of airlines?

Airports and distribution models are hastening to adapt to the many and varied new demands of airlines, full service, low cost and - increasingly - hybrid. These involve substantial investments and the market's demands are changing almost daily. This session will look at how are airports are facilitating the numerous requirements long-haul to short-haul low cost feed opportunities while still continuing to provide service for conventional operations

• Online and intermediary sales trends. Are Asian needs different
• Generating improved revenues in an Asian context
• Facilitating connections between low cost and full service airlines
• Addressing the growing capacity constraint issue at Asia's key airports - Will slot trading and selling come to Asia - an economic solution to an intractable issue?

16.20: Mergers, Acquisitions and Virtual airlines; in search of the optimum airline model

As the global airline market moves into a new era, many new strategies are being explored. The most radical is Etihad's Equity Partnership, but there are many other new approaches to achieving what must eventually be the goal: making profits. The type of model adopted necessarily must adapt to fit each airline's profile, in terms of such things as geography, their size, the nature of their home market, their IT systems and hub connectivity.

• Does the equity model translate for all airlines
• Will the process of hybridisation accelerate in Asia?
• What role will subsidiaries and cross-border JVs play?
• Are there new airline business models, on the periphery, that will make their presence felt in Asia in the next five years?
• …and is Asia different from the rest of the world?

17.15: End of Day 2

19.30: Gala Dinner hosted by Travelport, featuring the CAPA Asia Pacific Aviation Awards for Excellence

15 October 2014: Day 3, Aviation and Corporate Travel Futures

09.00: Chairman's welcome

09.05 Keynote Address: (tba)

09.30: Travel Industry 2020: The vision of global and Asian travel

A panel of the brightest minds in travel will gaze into the crystal ball for their predictions on global and regional travel in 2020 - with implications for aviation and corporate travel. How different is the Asian travel market - and is it changing.

There's guaranteed to be a few surprises…

10.45: Coffee Break & Corporate Buyers Marketplace

11.30: Air Procurement: The Buyers Perspective

Ten of the region's biggest corporate buyers explain what they expect of their airline suppliers.

• Where airlines are excelling - and where they need to improve
• Commercial deal models: revenue vs market share vs segments - what's the right formula for mutual success?
• Sourcing vs negotiating: are RFPs the path forward, or can ongoing dialogue and negotiation provide better results?
• Alliance contracts: are they relevant and useful for both buyers and airlines?
• What alternatives to traditional corporate deals are buyers exploring - LCCs, spot-purchase, cheapest available?

12.45: Lunch

14.00: Disruptive Corporate Travel Technologies: The solutions and trends that will irreversibly change the way business (travel) is done in Asia

15.00: Coffee Break

15.40: Final Panel discussion: The Corporate Travel Outlook 2015

• How will the corporate travel market perform in 2015?
• How are LCCs growing their share of corporate markets?

Ultra early bird discounts are available until 31 August, so register and save $300 off the full rate.

With thanks to our Event Partners