Helsinki – Aviation Software Capital for Two Days

According to this year’s World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world, and Helsinki is one of the most attractive cities in the Baltic region. Even more importantly, the business partnership between INFORM and Finnair, which is based in Helsinki, has existed for more than a quarter of a century. So, having the INFORM Airline Forum in the Finnish capital and co-hosted by Finnair just made sense.

REGISTRATIONS FROM ALL FIVE CONTINENTS

More than 100 airline experts from around the world made their way to Helsinki, including those coming from Hawaii, Singapore, and Australia. "For the first time, our attendance at an Airline Forum was in the triple digits," said a delighted Uschi Schulte-Sasse, Senior Vice President. "The interest far exceeded our expectations. We all felt it was finally time to meet again in this setting."

The event kicked off the evening of September 13 with a Welcome Reception at the Clarion Hotel Aviapolis. Attendees from around the globe seized the opportunity to get to know their colleagues from other airlines and spend time with the INFORM experts. For the following two days, all participants were not competitors, but colleagues who took part in the open exchange of views, sharing their experiences.

DIFFERENT PROGRAM FORMATS - FOCUS ON AI APPLICATIONS

With this principle, the main conference program started the next day. After an inspiring Keynote Speech, "Enriching Life by Bridging the World" by Yukka Glader Vice, President Ground Operations, Finnair, the participants were provided with the most important news and new developments of the GroundStar Suite.

INFORM and partners, FlightAware, HiSERV and Synaptic Aviation, provided a varied program with different formats, be it presentations, fireside chats, or panel discussions. Particularly, the possibilities and potentials of digitalization and AI applications in flight operations were in focus. After the event itself, there was another surprise on the agenda. Attendees were taken by bus to a jetty near the port of Helsinki. From there, a small ferry took them to a nearby island, where the HSS restaurant opened its doors exclusively for the participants. With cloudless skies and late summer temperatures, one could even see the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on the horizon.

SITE VISIT AT FINNAIR

The next morning, there was still one last highlight waiting - the exclusive site visit at Finnair. Three different destinations were visited: the Hub Control Center in the so-called HOTT (House of Travel and Transportation) building, the Cargo Control Center, and the Customer Experience Allocation directly at the airport terminal. From there, most of the participants took off to return home. "It was a really great event,” concludes Uschi Schulte-Sasse. “Many participants particularly liked the fact that they had the opportunity to visit our experts in the exhibition area during the many breaks we had planned between presentations. This allowed us to offer compact but intense conversations where our guests could discuss their specific topics in more depth and detail. The tremendous amount of positive feedback we had from this year's Airline Forum in Helsinki makes me even more excited to host our customers and friends in Aachen for the INFORM User Conference 2024.”