Pick up all your registration materials here and get answers to all your questions.

Speaker: Mitch Fox, Director, Flight Safety Foundation

This plenary session frames the system-level airspace challenge: safely accommodating rising traffic, drones, advanced air mobility, commercial space, automation, and other new operating concepts. It focuses on the conditions needed for safe integration at scale, including air traffic management, infrastructure, procedures, regulation, data exchange, and collaborative decision-making.

Speaker: Michelle Bishop, Director Operational Transformation, NAV CANADA

Morning networking break and transition to concurrent break-out rooms.

Recurring safety risks will not disappear simply because aviation is entering a new era. This track asks what must change to prevent familiar hazards from scaling alongside the industry.

What to expect: This stream focuses on familiar risks that continue to recur despite years of industry attention. Participants can expect practical discussion on why known hazards persist and what renewed discipline, stronger learning, and clearer accountability can do to reduce them.

Session 6a Panel | Known Risks, New Urgency: Breaking the Cycle of Recurring Safety Events

Many of aviation’s highest-risk event categories are well understood, yet they continue to recur across regions and operating environments. This panel will look beyond the categories themselves to the common systemic factors that allow known risks to persist, including gaps in compliance, communication, training, culture, oversight, and response to recurring signals. The discussion will challenge participants to consider why familiar interventions sometimes lose effectiveness and what renewed operational discipline requires.

Moderator: Michel Piers, Business Manager Aerospace Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Principal Safety Advisor, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)

Panelists:

Andrew Dunbeck, Director of SMS on the Corporate Safety Team, Delta Air Lines

Mark Searle, Global Director Safety, International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Dr. Kristy Kiernan, Associate Director, The Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)

Session 7a Action Workshop | Known Risks, New Urgency: Audience Engagement and Practical Action

Building on the Session 6A panel discussion, this interactive audience engagement session will leverage audience engagement to identify practical priorities and barriers to progress. Attendees will be asked to test the ideas raised during the panel discussion, identify why familiar risks continue to recur, and explore what individual organizations and the broader industry can do differently. The aim is to move from expert discussion to a clear set of actions that can strengthen operational discipline and reduce persistent safety events.

Moderator: Michel Piers, Business Manager Aerospace Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Principal Safety Advisor, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)

Panelists:

Andrew Dunbeck, Director of SMS on the Corporate Safety Team, Delta Air Lines

Mark Searle, Global Director Safety, International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Dr. Kristy Kiernan, Associate Director, The Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU)

As traffic grows and operations become more diverse, aviation will need the infrastructure, capabilities, procedures, and coordination to manage increasingly complex airspace and airport environments safely.

What to expect: This track examines how aviation can safely manage more traffic, more diverse operations, and more complex airport and airspace environments. Participants can expect discussion of the infrastructure, procedures, technology, and coordination needed to expand capacity without weakening safety margins.

Session 6b Panel | Building Capacity for Complexity: Infrastructure and Capabilities for Tomorrow’s Airspace and Airports

As traffic grows and operations become more diverse, airspace and airports will need infrastructure and capabilities that can safely manage greater complexity. This panel will examine the investments, systems, procedures, data-sharing arrangements, and operational coordination needed to increase capacity without reducing safety margins. The discussion will focus on what air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airports, operators, regulators, and technology providers must build now to support safe growth in an increasingly dense and dynamic operating environment.

Moderator: Tzvetomir Blajev, Director Europe and Global Operational Safety, Flight Safety Foundation

Panelists:

Stephen Creamer, President and CEO, ATCA

Chris Devlin, Vice President of Products and Strategy, Aireon

George Hodgson, Sr. ATC Systems Program Manager, Southwest Airlines

Gerard Van Es, Principal Consultant Flight Operations and Flight Safety, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)

Parimal Kopardekar, Acting Director, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Session 7b Action Workshop | Building Capacity for Complexity: Audience Engagement and Practical Action

Building on the Session 6B panel discussion, this interactive audience engagement session will turn the conversation toward participant input, practical priorities, and shared challenges. The audience will be invited to test the ideas raised in the panel, identify infrastructure and capability gaps, and discuss what is needed to manage increasing airspace and airport complexity safely. The aim is to move from expert discussion to a clear understanding of where action, investment, coordination, and collaboration are most urgently needed.

Moderator: Tzvetomir Blajev, Director Europe and Global Operational Safety, Flight Safety Foundation

Panelists:

Stephen Creamer, President and CEO, ATCA

Chris Devlin, Vice President of Products and Strategy, Aireon

George Hodgson, Sr. ATC Systems Program Manager, Southwest Airlines

Gerard Van Es, Principal Consultant Flight Operations and Flight Safety, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)

Parimal Kopardekar, Acting Director, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Disruption is inevitable; the safety outcome depends on how well the system anticipates pressure, coordinates decisions, and recovers without creating new risks.

What to expect: This track looks at how the aviation system performs when disrupted by weather, outages, congestion, or other operational stress. Participants can expect a practical conversation on resilience, coordination, decision-making, and recovery before pressure turns into elevated risk.

Session 6c Panel | When the System Is Stressed: Building Resilience for Safe Recovery

Severe weather, infrastructure outages, irregular operations, capacity constraints, and cascading delays can quickly erode normal defenses. This panel will examine how organizations maintain situational awareness, coordination, procedural discipline, and sound decision-making when the operating system is under stress. The discussion will focus on the practical conditions that allow aviation organizations to absorb disruption, adapt under pressure, and recover safely.

Moderator: John Babcook, Director, Flight Operations Safety and Quality Management, United Airlines

Panelists:

Lorenda Ward, Chief, Air Carrier and Space Investigations at U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Susie Scott, Director of Safety and Risk, Oliver Wyman Vector

Milena Bowman, Operations Planning and Strategy Development Lead, EUROCONTROL

Session 7c Action Workshop | When the System Is Stressed: Audience Engagement and Practical Action

Building on the Session 6C panel discussion, this interactive audience engagement session will turn the conversation toward participant input, practical priorities, and shared lessons from operational disruption. Attendees will be invited to test the ideas raised in the panel, identify what helps organizations absorb disruption and recover safely, and discuss the capabilities needed before the next major stress event. The aim is to move from expert discussion to a clear understanding of where preparedness, coordination, decision-making, and adaptive capacity need to be strengthened.

Moderator: John Babcook, Director, Flight Operations Safety and Quality Management, United Airlines

Panelists:

Lorenda Ward, Chief, Air Carrier and Space Investigations at U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Susie Scott, Director of Safety and Risk, Oliver Wyman Vector

Milena Bowman, Operations Planning and Strategy Development Lead, EUROCONTROL

Sponsored by:

The true test of safety leadership comes when safety must be protected amid growth targets, operational disruption, cost pressures, schedule demands, workforce realities, regulatory expectations, and customer needs. This candid fireside chat will explore how industry leaders navigate these competing priorities, recognize when safety margins may be tightening, and sustain accountability, collaboration, and a strong safety culture across a diverse operating environment. The discussion will offer practical insight into the choices, partnerships, and leadership commitments that make safety a governing value rather than a stated aspiration.

Speakers: 

Sasha Johnson, Vice President, Corporate Safety, United Airlines

Julie Mailhot, President and CEO, Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC)

Traditional safety processes can struggle when operating conditions and technologies evolve faster than periodic reviews. This panel will explore in-time safety management: continuous sensing, earlier weak-signal detection, rapid analysis, and timely intervention supported by advanced data and AI capabilities. It will also examine the governance, validation, and human accountability required to ensure that faster intelligence leads to better — not merely faster — decisions.

Moderator: John Thomson, Senior Technical Advisor, Safety Management, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) International  

Panelists: 

Dr. Wendy Okolo, Research Engineer in Intelligent Systems Division, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 

Ben Ivers, Director, Aviation Technologies and Spectrum, Government Operations, Boeing 

Regional safety programs are building different models for pooling expertise, analyzing operational information, and targeting shared risks. This panel will compare initiatives across multiple regions, highlighting what each has achieved, what barriers remain, and which lessons may transfer across different institutional and operational contexts. The discussion will show how regional leadership can accelerate collective learning while respecting differences in maturity, resources, data availability, and governance.

Moderator: Ian Goodwin, Director Flight Safety-Safety Enhancement, Airbus

Panelists:

AdeSewa Adeyemi, Secretary General, African Civil Aviation Commission (Alternate Head of Safety for Kenya Airlines/AFRAA)

Ludovic Aron, Representative to the United States of America, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)

Todd Sigler, Sr. Director, Global Safety and Regulatory Affairs, Boeing

This synthesis will connect the day’s parallel conversations on persistent risk, complexity, disruption, in-time safety, and regional intelligence. It will highlight the strongest points of convergence and the tensions that remain unresolved. The session will prepare participants for Day 3’s focus on workforce capability, industry commitments, emerging operations, and the agenda beyond Montreal.

Speaker: Mitch Fox, Director, Flight Safety Foundation

Pick up all your registration materials here and get answers to all your questions.

Speaker: Mitch Fox, Director, Flight Safety Foundation

Day 3 begins by bringing the Summit’s working discussions back into the plenary room. The three breakout tracks explored persistent risk, system complexity, and operational disruption; this report-back will identify the strongest insights, practical ideas, and unresolved questions from each. The purpose is to create a shared starting point for the final day: what we have learned, what still needs attention, and where action is most needed.

Moderator: Mitch Fox, Director, Flight Safety Foundation

Panelists:

Michel Piers, Business Manager Aerospace Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Principal Safety Advisor, Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR)

Tzvetomir Blajev, Director Europe and Global Operational Safety, Flight Safety Foundation

John Babcook, Director, Flight Operations Safety and Quality Management, United Airlines

With the breakout lessons established, this keynote turns to one of the most important capabilities aviation must strengthen: workforce competence. Meeting future demand will require more than adding training seats; it will require competency-based training, effective simulation, qualified instructors, learning technology, and strong assessment. The session will show how aviation can expand capacity while protecting the standards and judgment needed for safer, more automated, and more interconnected operations.

After looking at workforce capability, the conversation turns to commitment. This panel will ask where individual organizations can act now, where cross-industry cooperation is required, and how progress should be measured after the Summit. The aim is to move from broad agreement to clearer ownership, practical collaboration mechanisms, and a small number of priorities that can be carried forward beyond Montreal.

Moderator: Capt. Mark Cameron, Executive Manager Group Safety, Qantas

Panelists:

Simon Hocquard, President and CEO, Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) 

Justin Erbacci, Director General, Airports Council International (ACI) World 

Cedric Wilson, Vice President of Safety, American Airlines

Félix Meunier, Director General of Civil Aviation, Transport Canada

This panel will examine how advanced air mobility (AAM) and uncrewed aircraft systems can be integrated safely into increasingly busy low-altitude airspace. The discussion will focus on what these operations need from the existing system, what responsibilities new entrants must carry, and what infrastructure, procedures, data exchange, separation concepts, and coordination mechanisms are required as low-altitude operations move toward routine use.

Moderator:  Dr. Wendy Okolo, Research Engineer in Intelligent Systems Division, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Speakers:  

David Carbon, Vice President and General Manager, Amazon Prime Air  

Earl Lawrence, Aviation Policy Lead for Advanced Projects, Joby Aviation

Sponsored by:

After examining traditional aviation and the growth of low-altitude AAM and UAS operations, this featured speaker session turns to commercial space operations that increasingly move through shared airspace during launch and reentry. As these activities become more frequent, the aviation system must manage changing risk models, dynamic airspace constraints, coordination with air traffic management, and the operational impacts on airlines, airports, and other airspace users. The discussion will focus on how commercial space can continue to grow while protecting the safety, predictability, and efficiency of the broader airspace system.

The same question of trust applies to artificial intelligence (AI). As aviation uses advanced analytics to detect weak signals and support faster decisions, it must also preserve validation, transparency, explainability, and human oversight. This session will examine how AI can strengthen proactive safety intelligence without breaking the chain of accountability for safety outcomes.

The closing panel will bring the Day 3 conversation to a decision point: what should continue after Montreal, who should lead it, and how progress should be sustained. Senior leaders will consider where Flight Safety Foundation’s convening role can accelerate action, where industry ownership must be clearer, and which commitments are realistic, measurable, and durable. The goal is a focused agenda that protects proven safety disciplines while preparing aviation for the scale, complexity, and disruption ahead.

Moderator: Dr. Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO, Flight Safety Foundation

Panelists:

Sasha Johnson, Vice President, Corporate Safety, United Airlines

Andy Roberts, Director of Flight Operations, Rolls-Royce

Gilberto López Meyer, Senior Vice President, Corporate Aviation Safety and Security, Aeromexico

Yannick Malinge, Senior Vice President – Head of Aviation Safety of the Commercial Aircraft Business, Airbus

Speaker: Dr. Hassan Shahidi, President and CEO, Flight Safety Foundation