SAAIC 2025 programme

8.00 am – 9.00 am: Registration to the Conference and Welcome Coffee

9.00 am – 9.30 am: Official opening of the conference, welcome addresses

Speakers: 

Tuija Telén, Mayor of Helsinki Uusimaa Regional Council 
Pekka Timonen, Mayor of the City of Vantaa 
Her Excellency Mrs Raja Rabia, Ambassador of France to Finland 

9.30 am – 9.50 am: Introductory Keynotes
 

Speakers: 

Kimmo Mäki, CEO of Finavia 
Guillaume Legoupil, President of French Foreign Trade Advisors in Finland  

9.50 am – 10.00 am: Networking Coffee Break

10.00 am – 11.45 am Panel 1: Transforming airports into energy hubs for decarbonizing the air transport industry - what is the roadmap and how it could generate new perspectives for airport areas?

Topic : 
On the short term, low-carbon development will be based on the use of SAF, network optimization, fleet renewal and hundreds of different measures in operational activities. Disruption will come in the 2035s with electric and in the 2040s with hydrogen airplanes. At that time, the innovative jet fuel e-SAF could be a game changer. 
Airports will play a significant catalytic role in the decarbonization of aviation for example by  ensuring that the existing fuel infrastructure is sufficiently open to new fuel manufacturers and that timely preparations are made for electricity and hydrogen disruptions. Airport companies will therefore form their own new ecosystems and business models around lower-carbon energy. 
In this context, what could be the opportunities for airport areas : job creation and economic development, lower energy costs for local businesses & residents, supply of green electricity and hydrogen for local transportation?

Moderators: 

Sandy Chen, Associate Professor, Civil Aviation University of China, China
Ulla Ruuskanen, Senior Advisor, Manager for Avia Network, City of Vantaa and Helsinki Uusimaa Regional Council, fFinland

Speakers:

Riku Aho, Vice-president for Energy Transition, Finnair, Finland 
Anders Fagernæs, Senior Vice-President Sustainability, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Norway 
Xavier Hurstel, Groupe ADP Executive Director for International and Economic Relations, Paris-CDG, France  
Rujan Hu, Chief Expert of Sustainable Development, Hean Junhang Industrial Group Biotechnology Co, Ltd,  Henan Puang City, China
Eira Linko, Project lead, Vantaa the Neuralpath project, Finland
Cyril Dufau-Sansot, Co-founder and CEO Hy2Gen, Marseilles, France
Antoine Féral, Vice-president EU Affairs at Rolls-Royce, EU, Brussels, Belgium
  

11.45 am – 12.30 pm: Networking Lunch
 

12.30 pm – 2.30 pm Panel 2: Building on international connectivity for engaging towards economic diversification - a means to grow regional prosperity and resilience

Topic: 
Airport areas being, in their great majority, mono-industry economies, suffer deeply when the air travel industry is in crisis. So, diversification is key to build a stronger and more resilient economy.
The past years revealed new opportunities through the localization in airport areas of strategic industries which supply chains largely depends on cargo traffic and air connectivity. 
What are the sectors in which airport areas have successfully diversified their economy? For example: health industry and pharmaceuticals, biomedical life sciences, media production, and advanced manufacturing etc. Another, more unexpected, opportunity is the food and agribusiness some airport areas are currently developing. What is the real strategic potential of this industry for airport areas?

Moderator:  

Pieter van der Horst, Managing Director Airport City Academy & Project Director Schiphol Area Development Company 

Speakers:

Chris Le Tourneur, President & CEO MXD Development Strategists Ltd, Edmonton, Canada
Filip Czernicki, CEO, CPK airport, Poland 
Shi Guangcun, Party Secretary, Chairman of Shadong Airport Management Group, Jinan International Airport, Jinan, China
Tommo Koivusalo, Director, Economic affairs and development, City of Vantaa, Finland
Yuki Kawakita, Narita Airport Company, Tokyo-Narita, Japan
Pieter van der Horst, Managing Director Airport City Academy & Project Director Schiphol Area Development Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vincent Joly, Business France, Country Director Finland and Estonia, Finland – France 
Qin Hu, Vice General Manager, Beijing New Aerotropolis Institute of Smart and Ecological Technology Co, Ltd, Beijing, China
Jean-François Benon, General Manager Val d’Oise-Paris Region Development Agency, Paris CDG Airport Area, France
  

2.30 pm – 2.45 pm: Networking Coffee Break

2.45 pm –  4.15 pm Panel 3: Advanced Mobility and innovative transportation are growing fast forwards all over the world. How to build on this momentum to create opportunities for airport areas?
 

Topic:  
AAM is moving fast forward in several parts of the world. What are the first tangible developments in Europe, Americas and Asia? Is really AAM a new means of transportation, part of a next-generation transit system? What could be the first use-case scenarios? How could it be integrated in a multimodal transportation network? What are the consequences of AAM development on urban planning? Is AAM an opportunity or a challenge for Airport Areas? What kind of positive economic externalities could it bring to airport areas (for example attracting constructors’ plants, cooperation with local companies/SMEs, joint innovation with local start-ups?
What are the other innovative means of transportation in airport areas? What are the best practices to create a high-quality multimodal transit network?

Moderator: 

Maria Krylova, Senior Consultant, M2P Consulting GmbH

Speakers:

Christina Suomi, Project Director for Helsinki U-Space, Helsinki, Finland 
Bob Johnson, Principal Johnson Consulting and Advisory LLC, Atlanta, USA
Jean-François Benon, General Manager Val d’Oise-Paris Region Development Agency and Borhene Dhaouadi General Manager of GUAM Mobility, Paris, France 
Vicenç Polo, European Projects Manager, Catalonia Lleida Airport, Catalonia, Spain 
Zheng Xiang, Vice Secretary General Unmanned Air Vehicle Industry Association, Shenzen, China 
Anthony Le Caherec, Groupe Bouygues Airport Development Director, Paris, France

End of Day 1
 

8.00 am – 9.00 am: Welcome Coffee

9.00 am – 11.00 am Panel 4: Building innovative urban development for attracting new residents and employees - how to find pioneering ways for rejuvenating airport areas?

Topic:
Airport areas are not, generally speaking, the best positioned on matter of quality of life compared to city centers. However, airport areas need, for their resilience and their competitiveness, to retain and attract new residents and employees. So the question is : how to make the destination desirable for residents and employees? 
What are the innovative ways for rejuvenating airport areas ? Is there a new model of development for urban development in airport areas?How to redevelop underserved and/or obsolete sites to transform them into attractive business parks and residential areas? How to use urban development for reconnecting communities ecologically and culturally to stay true to the history of the place.

Moderator:

Johanna Rajala, Vantaa District architect Aviapolis Airport City  

Speakers:

Pieter van der Horst, Managing Director Airport City Academy & Project Director Schiphol Area Development Company, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jozef Kuraszkiewicz, Urban Planning Team Leader – Spatial Senior Planner from the Regional Development Department, CPK, Poland
Ilari Airikkala, Aviapolis Project Director, Vantaa, Finland
Erich Valentin, “Dialog Forum Vienna”, Airport Regions Council, Europe
Sergiy Ivannikov, Country Director at Teichmann & Compagnons Property Network Vienne, Kiey, Ukraine
Peter de Leeuw, Head of Airport City Development at Vienna Airport, Vienna, Austria
Zhao An, General Manager of Beijing New Aerotropolis Urban Operations Management Co, Ltd, Beijing, China
Hubert Fontanel-Ngo, Groupe ADP Real Estate Deputy Director, Paris, France
Yves-Antoine Brun, Senior Vice President at ALTEN, Regional Director for Benelux and Nordics
 

11.00 – 11.15 : Networking Coffee Break
 

11.15 am – 12.15 pm Panel 5: Leveraging airports 4.0 transformation for sustaining workforce development - how to plan ahead for jobs inclusion?
 

Topic: 
Airports of the future will be based on digitalization, automation and AI. Actually, the transformation is already on the move. What already are and will be the consequences of these evolutions on airport operations and airport customer experience? Are these evolutions a challenge or an opportunity for the local populations of airport areas?
How to avoid a breach of the social contract between an airport and its airport area? How to prepare for the skills tomorrow needed? What kind of partnership could be built with schools and universities to prepare for the future?

Moderator:  

Namrata Sethi, Project Manager at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences 

Speakers:

Sami Kiiskinen, Vice President, Airport Development, Helsinki Airport, Finavia, Finland
Yves-Antoine Brun, Senior Vice President – Regional Director Nordics and Benelux Alten Group, Brussels, Belgium
Carol Zhang, Director of Business Service Department, Daxing International Airport, Economic Zone Administrative Commtte, Beijing, China
Sergi Alegre, General Director, Airport Regions Council
Ivan Berazhny, Senior Lecturer, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Antoine Féral, Vice-president EU Affairs at Rolls-Royce, EU, Brussels

 

12.15 pm – 12.30 pm : Official conclusion of the Conference

Speakers:

Pekka Timonen, Mayor, City of Vantaa, Finland
Jean-François Benon, General Manager Val d’Oise-Paris Region Development Agency, Paris CDG Airport Area, France

12.30 – 1.30 pm : Networking Lunch 
 

End of Day 2