About
Join us at the first-ever joint IATA World Finance Symposium and IATA World Passenger Symposium, where airline retailing, finance and passenger experience unite to create a dynamic platform for strategic exploration, actionable insights, and transformative innovation. Prior to the official opening of the Symposiums, invited participants at the IATA Industry Meetings, IATA Industry Taxation Meeting, IATA ICH and SIS General Meetings, to be held on 23-24 October, will be offered to visit and network at the Symposium's exhibition.
The WFS&WPS Exhibition will be opened from Monday, 23 October until Thursday, 26 October 2023.
About the World Financial Symposium
The World Financial Symposium (WFS) brought 600 delegates to Doha, Qatar from 19 to 22 September 2022. The WFS 2023 will continue offering plenary sessions and specialized streams on the airlines financial sustainability.
About the World Passenger Symposium
The World Passenger Symposium (WPS) combines the former Digital and Data and Retailing Symposium, the Global Airport and Passenger Symposium and the Accessibility Symposium into a single event to reflect the importance and connectedness of all three elements to the customer experience.
Why should you attend?
- Exclusive insights from industry representatives on challenges and opportunities in the airline industry
- Great industry intelligence and news of upcoming trends in airline industry
- Meeting opportunities with industry decision makers
- Network with a variety of industry representatives
- Knowledge sharing
The program will follow soon.
Who will you meet?
- A diverse set of delegates including airline representatives, services and solutions providers, delegates from finance, retailing and the banking sector, consultancy firms, start-ups, fin-techs, etc.
- Over 100 individual airlines.
- Over 100 IATA strategic partners
- Over 70 sponsors and exhibitors
Testimonials from past attendees of WFS:
"An event that every stakeholder in aviation should attend and yield the benefits. Brainstorming sessions, debates, seminars and the like besides the networking opportunities are a must for the people in aviation."
Kabeer Yousuf, Senior Journalist, Oman Observer Daily Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
"Great aviation event for revenue and sales team. New communication opportunities and possibilities to discuss all queries in one place with airline professionals from all over the world."
Saule Khassenova, Air Astana
"The WFS is the event for Payments in the Airline Industry. Insightful sessions and top-level productive discussions with Airlines and great atmosphere!"
Teresa Rivera, SVP Payments, Accelya
"What made me very happy and satisfied was the professionalism and knowledge in the field of aviation that the IATA team showed and has shown in my 12 years of experience as a revenue accounting manager."
Emidio Ricardo, Mozambique Airlines
Testimonials from past attendees of WPS:
"An absolute must attend symposium for any one in Commercial, Distribution, Passenger Experience or Accessibility. Best speakers from across the world, best commercial leaders sharing their experiences. Great learning opportunity."
Vikas Manra, Head of Global Business Development & Distribution, Gulf Air
"It is a great event that helps us to grow our network, meet aviation experts, discuss opportunities with vendors, and learn more about the trends in the Airline industry."
Dr. Saleh Bukhari, GM Sales Distrbution Strategy
"WPS is a great opportunity to network and mostly learn more on airlines' challenges and future. It is a great forum for open discussion on various customer facing challenges and necessary improvement."
Tomasz Pawliszyn, AirHelp
"IATA World Passenger Symposium provided a great platform to learn about latest developments in the industry, to raise issues of common interest and enabled networking with various stakeholders. An amazing event."
Rajesh Dogra, Chief Customer Experience Officer & Global Head of Airport Operations, Air India
Program
Please see the complete event program (pdf) and the roadmap (pdf) of WFS & WPS 2023.
Wednesday 25 October |
Thursday 26 October |
|---|---|
| Opening Plenary (pdf) | WFS Stream 1: Value Creation (pdf) |
| Airline Retailing & Finance for a Sustainable Future (pdf) | WFS Stream 2: Protecting Value (pdf) |
| Airline Retailing. The Journey to Powering Profitability through Customer Centricity (pdf) | WPS Stream 1: Passenger Experience & Airport (pdf) |
| WPS Stream 1: Passenger Experience & Airport (pdf) | WPS Stream 2: Accessibility (pdf) |
| WPS Stream 2: Accessibility (pdf) | WPS Stream 3: Airline Retailing (pdf) |
Registration Rates for WFS & WPS 2023 in USD
| standard rate* | |
|---|---|
|
General Public |
$ 2,199 |
|
IATA Member Airline |
$ 700 |
|
Strategic Partners |
$ 1,869 |
|
Airports |
$ 1,979 |
|
Governments & Institutions |
$ 1,979 |
*VAT not included
Sponsorship/Exhibition Contact
Showcase your products and services to industry leaders, governments, international organizations, and subject matter experts. For information on sponsorship and exhibition opportunities at the World Financial and World Passenger Symposiums, please complete the form, and a member of our team will be in touch.
Destination & Venue
Chicago
From the iconic Magnificent Mile to the scenic lakefront, Chicago is a destination that will impress any traveler. The Windy City is known for its architecture and skyline, including the Willis Tower, where United Airlines is headquartered. The third largest city in the US is also famous for its world-renowned museums and delicious food. There is always something new to discover, from Michelin-star restaurants to countless events. Home to two international airports, it is accessible to more than 240 destinations, so getting there is easy – leaving is a little more difficult.
> Weather in Chicago
> More information about Chicago
McCormick Place
The McCormick Place is the premier convention facility in North America. Located on Chicago’s lakefront, just minutes from downtown and facing one of the most iconic skylines in the world, the McCormick Place campus provides world-class facilities that can accommodate just about any requests.
> Find information on passport, visa & health requirements through the IATA Travel Centre.
World Financial Symposium (WFS) 2022
The World Financial Symposium took place in Doha, Qatar from 19 to 21 September 2022. The theme was "reshaping airline resilience," following the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. The goal: "Fly Net Zero - to achieve net zero carbon by 2050," by gaining agility in this less favorable landscape through retail and financial digital transformation.
- View photos
- View recorded sessions
World Financial Symposium (WFS) 2021
This special virtual edition of WFS took place on 19 - 20 October 2021. WFS 2021 offered several tracks that tackled various financial and related topics, with the objective of finding solutions to overcome challenges and seize opportunities to build airline finance for the future.
- View recorded sessions
World Financial Symposium (WFS) 2019
"Shaping a Sustainable Future Together" was the theme for WFS 2019.
- View photos
- View recorded sessions
World Passenger Symposium (WPS) 2022
The IATA World Passenger Symposium (WPS) took place in Manama, Bahrain on 01 – 03 November 2022 at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain, kindly hosted by Gulf Air. Under the theme “Unlocking Value Creation by Putting the Customer First,” the WPS 2022 looked at how the industry can deliver the best experience to its customers.
- View photos
- View presentations
Digital, Data and Retailing Symposium (DDR) 2021
In 2021, the Airline Industry Retailing Symposium (AIRS) and the Aviation Data Symposium (ADS) were held at the same time and place under a brand-new name: Digital, Data and Retailing Symposium (DDR). The focus was on the industry restart plan and how Airlines can further reduce costs and plan for new revenue generation using the power of Data and Retailing.
DDR Symposium 2021 covered key industry topics and allowed 650+ industry players to engage in a hybrid format to drive the industry recovery. Over 450 industry leaders and experts were in Madrid meeting face to face, while over 150 following the event remotely.
- View photos
- View recorded sessions
IATA Global Accessibility Symposium (IGAS) 2020
The 2nd edition of the IATA Global Accessibility Symposium took place on 27-28 October 2020. The 2020 edition informed industry stakeholders, passengers and state regulators about the efforts driven by the aviation industry in 2020.
Such efforts included: Recommendations for accessible air travel in response to COVID-19, innovative trends in the technology area, an overview of existing and upcoming policy and regulation, practical considerations on accessibility hot topics, and the future of accessibility and innovation - connecting the dots.
- View recorded sessions
IATA Global Airport & Passenger Symposium (GAPS) 2019
IATA Global Airport & Passenger Symposium (GAPS) examines the processes that touch the passenger journey, on the ground and in the air, and impact releated airport processes and operations, allowing delegates to collectively shape future solutions through panel discussions, and innovation sessions, and partake in the development of the future passenger journey storyline.
The 2019 edition took place on 15-17 October in Warsaw, Poland, and addressed the impact of exisiting processes in the passenger journey and explore how future needs, trends, and solutions will shape the way of travel. Sub-themes included: "the seamless journey," "the transforming airport," and "the world of interactive data."
- View photos
- View "The Seamless Journey" presentations (pdf)
Co-Host Airlines
Prime Sponsors
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
Supporting Organizations
Exhibitors
Media Partners
Our Diversity & Inclusion Pledge
IATA believes that diversity of culture, gender, age, orientation and experience boosts the success of the aviation industry. We actively encourage aviation professionals with diverse profiles to contribute to our events as speakers, panelists, facilitators, or in any other way.