That’s where I’ll be in less than two months’ time to join the inaugural edition of Airspace APAC from 9-11 December. This is the first expansion of the Airspace World brand. Having attended Airspace World since the beginning, I am curious as to the differences I will see at the APAC event. Of course, there will be more attendees from the region who maybe didn’t make the trip to Lisbon earlier this year and topics will certainly focus on those of most importance to APAC.
The Asia Pacific region is at the forefront of airspace transformation, with increasing demands for digitalisation, automation, and integration of new airspace users such as drones and eVTOL.
Checking out the content
The event website describes three days of exploring breakthrough technologies, regulatory developments, and operational advancements shaping the future of aviation in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets.
There are six content tracks planned for the conference:
- Accelerating Digitalisation, Automation, and AI for Future Skies
- Seamless Airspace: Integrating Manned, Uncrewed, and Advanced Air Mobility
- Next-Generation Flow and Capacity Management in Asia-Pacific
- Catalysing the CATS Vision: A Roadmap for Asia-Pacific’s Skies of 2045
- Civil–Military Synergy and Airspace Optimisation
- People, Partnerships, and Purpose: Building Asia-Pacific’s Future Aviation Workforce
The conference agenda brings together a mix of air traffic management topics with newer airspace entrants – drones and advanced air mobility. Speakers represent a global view of these topics. I’ve already marked my agenda to listen to sessions and panels on technology aspects including artificial intelligence and digital transformation, but also collaboration in the area with the demonstration of the Regional Collaboration Platform (RCP), a web-based platform to support a wide range of stakeholders, including airlines and ANSPs. This is different from what we know in Europe where EUROCONTROL acts as network manager.
Beyond the main conference
In addition to the main conference, exhibition and networking opportunities there are a few side events that look interesting. Tomorrow’s voices is always an interesting session with young aviators sharing their views of working in our industry. Thursday from 1000 – 1050 in Theatre 1 you can join the discussion. There will also be live exhibitor demonstrations on the show floor – I guess that means there won’t be any eVTOLs flying, but hopefully there might be some virtual flight opportunities.
CANSO will be holding its Asia Pacific conference the day before Airspace APAC with a theme of Seamless APAC Airspace – Aviation and Meteorology Integration. Although this is a CANSO members-only event I’m sure there will be some interesting insights shared after the programme.
See you in Hong Kong!
Marita Lintener and I will be representing the Global Airspace Radar team onsite and looking forward to meeting you at the conference.
