AIRPORT WORLD 2025/26, ISSUE 06
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Airport Profile: Copenhagen
Event Review: Artificial Intelligence in Airports & Airports Innovate
Plus: Airport Design, Retail and Business Exchange
Sustainable growth
Editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the innovation focus of recent industry events and the sustainability theme of this issue of Airport World.
Happy New Year to one and all. Let’s hope that the next 12 months prove to be as exciting and successful as the last with innovation and growth firmly back the agenda.
Talking about innovation, I attended two industry events in the final months of 2025 where embracing new technology was front and centre, ‘Airports Innovate’ in South Korea, and the inaugural ‘Artificial Intelligence in Airports’ summit in London.
At Airports Innovate, the technologies either on display in the exhibition hall, introduced to the audience during Innovation Showcase presentations or discussed in panel sessions once again showed that we work in an incredibly inventive and forward-looking industry.
In fact some of the new technolgies and potential solutions to aviation’s challenges were so inspiring that we shall feature them in future issues.
I didn’t have to travel quite so far to attend the other technology focused event, Airport World’s inaugural Artificial Intelligence in Airports summit in Twickenham, where the power of AI, recognising that artificial intelligence isn’t all about replacing staff, and ensuring its safe adoption were just a few of the topics covered.
Our event, hosted in conjunction with the Egremont Group, showcased a host of technology experts, start-ups, airports and AI solution providers in a bid to create clarity, form connections, and instil commitment around the role of artificial intelligence in airport operations.
Speaking at the summit, Egremeont Group’s senior consultant for airport operations transformation, Nick Crane, admitted: “AI is moving very quickly. Even some of the founding fathers don’t really know where this is going to end up, or where it’s going to take us.
“But don’t fear, we’re all in it together, and let’s let this energise us, not fear us and scare us from what could be. Because we aren’t the spectators in this. We are the people making this happen.”
You will find comprehensive reviews of both events in this issue of your favourite airport magazine. Innovation, of course, takes many forms and includes the hot topic of sustainability, which is the theme of this December/January 2026 issue.
In the themed section we take a closer look at Swedavia’s sustainability strategy; ACI EUROPE provides a progress report on the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme; and WSP reflects on a defining year for sustainable aviation.
The section also contains features about the growing importance of good waste management and the staff recruitment challenges facing airports.
The lead airport feature is on Copenhagen Airport which has arguably just enjoyed the best year in its history.
Indeed, with the ongoing expansion of Terminal 3 gathering pace, record traffic figures, and the Danish state once again in control of its destiny, these are good times for Denmark’s hub.
Elsewhere in this issue, we have a special report on the building of the new terminal at Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport; IT innovation in Asia-Pacific; and why pop-up stores will have an important role to play in the reimagining of airport retail.
We round the issue out with our regular ‘people matters’ column and airport supplier news and features in our ‘business exchange’ section.
Companies featured in the latter include Clear Channel Outdoor, ADB SAFEGATE, Plaza Premium Group, JLL, Copenhagen Optimization, Amadeus, Cognitec, SSP Group and SITA.
