World Aviation Festival 2026: Day 1 highlights

Airlines, airports and technology companies in Lisbon focus on AI, turnaround delays and the customer experience as the 2026 festival opens

Day 1 of the World Aviation Festival 2026 opened today in Lisbon, with airlines, airports and technology companies sharing how artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are being used to speed up aircraft turnarounds, improve ground operations and make journeys easier for passengers.  Exhibitors also released new industry research and announced airline partnerships at and ahead of the festival.

The festival brings together more than 4,500 attendees and 600 speakers over three days at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL), from Oct. 13 to Oct. 15.  New for 2026 are a dedicated Airport & Airline Collaboration Track and the Ancillary Arena, a pitch competition for new ancillary revenue ideas.

New research on delays and digital performance

Aviation technology company Assaia released its 2026 Turnaround Report, which found that aircraft turnarounds in North America and Europe ran an average of 11.1 minutes over schedule in the first quarter of 2026.  Assaia estimates that closing this gap could save airlines up to $44 billion a year, and found that turnarounds monitored by AI ran 36% closer to schedule.

“Eleven minutes might not sound significant, but across millions of flights, the impact is huge,” said Christiaan Hen, CEO of Assaia.

Consultancy Raven published its Customer Growth Index, which scores the digital experience of 101 airlines.  It found that when travellers ask AI assistants about routes or travel needs in an airline’s market, the assistants name that airline in 78% of answers but link to its website in only 27%.  For 85 of the 101 airlines, assistants linked to online travel agents and metasearch sites more often than to the airline itself.  Finnair topped the ranking, and Raven estimates the shortfalls it measured add up to around $3 billion a year in lost revenue.

Airline partnerships

Alaska Airlines featured in two announcements.  Meili announced that Alaska has partnered with the company to update its car rental booking experience, and BAGTAG showcased BAGTAG Pulse, its third-generation electronic bag tag, which Alaska will bring into its operation, with a commercial rollout to follow.  Pulse lets passengers track their bag through Apple Find My and Google Find Hub, and lets airlines update the tag remotely when a bag is moved to a new flight.

Pegasus Airlines has invested in Zingly.ai to bring agentic voice AI to its guest service, with the aim of resolving guest requests during the call.  Arbitrip reported that the new hotel booking platform it powers for EL AL generated more than 35,000 hotel nights in its first month.

Aviation compliance platform OneReg announced its first UK partnership, with Bristol Airport, which is working with OneReg to implement its new safety management system as it goes through a £400 million upgrade.

“This partnership represents a major milestone for OneReg as we enter the UK, one of the most influential aviation markets globally,” said Clinton Cardozo, CEO and co-founder of OneReg.

AI and autonomy on the airside

In the Startup Theatre, leaders from AeroVect, Azalea Robotics, Moonware and Humoniq discussed how AI and autonomy are reshaping airport operations and the passenger experience.  Eugenio Donati, co-founder of AeroVect, said airside operations are well suited to autonomy because they follow highly structured flows, and that customers have become serious about automation since the pandemic.  David Millard, CEO of Azalea Robotics, said the company’s autonomous fleet is deployed at Atlanta airport, where it plans to scale quickly, and is having a positive impact on Delta Air Lines’ operations, while Javier Vidal, CEO of Moonware, stressed that change management is needed everywhere new technology is introduced.  Todd Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of Humoniq, said voice AI can now hold natural conversations, which helps airlines support passengers in different languages when flights are cancelled.

How Turkish Airlines uses AI to track turnarounds

Elif Rümeysa Erikel, senior program manager for ramp operations at Turkish Airlines, presented Turnaround AI, which uses existing apron cameras to recognise ground activities, record when each starts and ends, and match them to the right flight and stand.  The tool tracks more than 30 core events and is more than 92% accurate in detecting critical events under supported operating conditions, so teams can act as events happen rather than afterwards.  Turkish Airlines operates more than 500 aircraft and plans to reach 1,000 by 2036.

Putting the customer at the heart of airline innovation

Sofia Lufinha, chief customer officer at TAP Air Portugal, said around 30% of calls to TAP’s contact centre come from passengers asking for information before they fly, such as visa requirements, so the airline is working on sending this information after booking.  TAP is also launching initiatives for baggage tracking through its app and self-service flight changes after cancellations, and is developing a chatbot to extend its human-staffed WhatsApp concierge service for top-tier customers to all passengers.

Barry Chester, head of airlines at Cresta, said AI allows airlines to turn contact centres into insight centres and is now being used to train gate agents and flight attendants.  Mike Murchison, co-founder and CEO of Ada, said that deploying AI in complex interactions such as disruption drives incremental revenue and increases loyalty.

To be continued…

The festival continues tomorrow with further keynotes, panels and announcements from across the aviation ecosystem.  For details on this year’s speaker line-up, visit: https://www.terrapinn.com/conference/aviation-festival/speakers.stm