The Passenger Experience Conference (PEC), taking place this year on 13 April at the Hamburg Messe, saw more than 65 expert speakers across airline passenger experience, onboard environments and services industries presenting at the conference which featured over 25 deep-dive sessions including opening keynote, panel discussions and breakout streams.
The event, which had the highest number of airline speakers to date including Lufthansa Group, Wizz Air, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and flydubai, had a focus around three core themes. These included ‘Digital First – Personal, Intelligent & Intuitive’; ‘Sustainability & The Eco-Conscious Traveller’; and ‘Wellness, Comfort & Human-Centric Design’.
The Digital First stream looked at how airlines can enhance ancillary revenue generation using technology, with smart data, frequent flyer programmes, in-flight entertainment and connectivity and next-generation technology in focus.
The Wellness, Comfort, & Human-Centric Design stream examined how airlines can meet the demand for physical and psychological passenger comfort while ensuring accessibility. The sessions looked at many important topics such as how to design aircraft cabins for accessibility and inclusivity and how to provide food for both body and mind.
The Sustainability & The Eco-Conscious Traveller track at the conference explored how airlines can meet sustainability targets in the face of upcoming regulatory requirements while maintaining operational efficiency and passenger satisfaction, while airline catering and AI, enhancing customer experience for the eco-conscious passenger and understanding their sustainability expectations were also discussed in this stream.
“Right now, the industry is focused on making travel feel more personal while meeting much tougher standards for sustainability and passenger wellbeing,” said Shona Thomson, Event Director of WTCE ahead of the event.
“We are excited to see PEC 2026 bring the largest-ever lineup of airlines to show how these goals are being turned into real-life results, already redefining the passenger experience.”