CT deployment and AI-assisted image analysis are transforming what’s possible at the checkpoint — but the operational, financial, and workforce implications are substantial. This table examines where technology is genuinely improving security effectiveness and throughput, and where the integration challenges remain unsolved.
As screening becomes increasingly automated, Day 2 asks the question the technology vendors rarely address: what is the irreducible role of the security officer, and how do you maintain professional expertise and situational awareness in a team whose routine tasks are increasingly performed by machines? How do we manage competing KPIs and SLAs? How do we ensure security teams that are outsourced provide the same level of service as our own staff? How do we support our passengers? Language barriers, changing equipment and expectations (i.e. People that will still take everything out of their bags).
This also touches on passenger trust, civil liberties, and the social licence to operate biometric and AI-assisted systems.
Expanding or renewing an airport while it continues to serve millions of passengers is one of the most complex project management challenges in any industry. This table shares hard-won lessons from airports that have done it — on phasing, contractor coordination, operational continuity, and the moments things nearly went wrong.
Day 2 examines the strategic problem that underlies all capital planning: how do you design and size infrastructure for demand curves that may be radically reshaped by climate policy, fuel costs, geopolitical shifts, or behavioural change? This explores scenario planning, modular design, and the governance of long-horizon capital decisions.
From extreme weather to geopolitical shocks to cyber incidents, disruption is no longer exceptional. This table examines how airports are shifting from reactive crisis management to proactive resilience design — building redundancy, scenario planning, and operational flexibility into the fabric of how they run.
Day 2 takes the resilience conversation into more uncomfortable territory: what do airports actually owe each other and the wider system when things go wrong? This explores the case for deeper operational collaboration — shared protocols, mutual aid agreements, and industry-level response frameworks.
