The 29th Airport Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific/World Annual General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition, under the theme "What's next for aviation? The future starts now," has officially got underway in Hong Kong today.

More than 850 aviation leaders from around world were welcomed by the Honourable Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-Ngor, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR Government, host Fred Lam, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, and keynote Dr. Fang Liu, Secretary General of ICAO.

As the event kicked-off, Chair, ACI World, President, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 and CEO, Corporación América Airports, Martin Eurnekian highlighted the importance of the event and of collaboration.

"In light of future air travel demand, this event provides aviation leaders and industry stakeholders the opportunity to put our heads together and to think critically and creatively about key topics," he said as he welcomed delegates to the conference. "We will seek solutions including the task of accommodating growth, major developments in aircraft operations, resilience and adaptation to climate change, the customer experience revolution, new experiences in travel technologies, and innovations in security."

President, ACI Asia-Pacific, and Chief Executive Officer, Changi Airport Group, Lee Seow Hiang said the event provides a unique opportunity to address and explore the challenges for the future of airports and aviation as economic and social engines.

"Asia-Pacific region has been a key driving force contributing to the world's robust air traffic growth for the past decade," he said.

"ACI forecasted that eight out of the top ten fastest growing countries for passengers in 2017-2040 are from Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. There is no one-size-fits all in how we manage, fund or invest in our airports. Recent trends point to privatization as a way to finance much needed infrastructure investments as means to increase capacity.

"Amidst the anticipated growth and building capacity, we in the aviation industry, in cooperation and collaboration with government and stakeholders, need to provide a good passenger experience, keep the system safe, secure, efficient, economically and environmentally sustainable. It is important that we listen carefully to the needs of the communities that we all serve.

"Under this umbrella we are grateful to have Dr. Fang Liu, the Secretary General of ICAO as our keynote speaker and Hong Kong International Airport as our generous host for this year's conference."

Fred Lam, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, "I would like to thank ACI for choosing Hong Kong as the venue for this important event, and I am grateful to all of our participants for flying all the way to Hong Kong to attend this year's conference.

"Hong Kong is renowned for its sophistication as a modern, international city, yet endowed with rich Chinese culture and traditions. It is our pleasure and honour to host the aviation industry's flagship events in Hong Kong to facilitate exchange of ideas and knowledge among airport operators and partners."

During the event, ACI will release several key products and services to promote airport excellence in the areas of security, facilitation and services, and customer experience. The overall aim is to help ACI member airports address current and emerging issues, offer ACI best practices, and to contribute to the sustainable growth of the industry.

Following the release of the 2019 Airport Economics Report on 28 March, ACI will launch:

- Cybersecurity for Airport Executives Handbook, which highlights critical actions that need to be taken at Board level to address cybersecurity. This will be complemented by an implementation handbook, planned for release in the second quarter of the year, aimed at providing more detail on how cybersecurity can be addressed, both organizationally and technically

- Airport Business Continuity Handbook, which provides airport operators with useful actions to create a robust business continuity management plan in order to prepare for, respond to, mitigate, and recover from potential events that may disrupt normal business operations

- Addressing Insider Threat Handbook, offering a range of best practices that can be combined to form a robust multi-layered system, and which are in line with ACI's risk-based approach to Security, and

- The ASQ Customer Experience Accreditation programme , a new multilevel accreditation developed through ACI's globally-established Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme which helps airports assess their level of maturity regarding its management of customer experience and service quality.

Contributed by ACI