Data - who provides it, who collects it and who actually knows how to use it?

Data has become about a lot more than collecting information that your own customers provide you. Every step we take, every move we make is contributing to massive databases that provide the basis for a level of transparency that we could not have dreamt of as recently as a couple of decades ago.

This is in many ways fearsome, as much of our business structuring has been built around an absence of transparency, allowing some form of manipulation of the customer. But, as airlines - and their suppliers - seek to open up new distribution avenues that share key information, the ubiquity of data is beginning to threaten, to disrupt the existing system on a much broader scale. Let's build the history and try to project where things are going.

This will be one of the topic areas discussed at the forthcoming CAPA- Centre for Aviation Airline Leader Summit - A CEO Gathering 2018 that takes place in Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 17-May-2018 and 18-May-2018.

Understanding aviation markets is CAPA's great strength and passion and this year's agenda includes a variety of topics sure to generate interest. Who provides the data, who collects it - and who knows how to use it? will be the opening panel session on the morning of the Dublin forum on 17-May-2018 and will follow a keynote address from Social Data Lab director Dr Andreas Weigend, the author of 'Data for the People: How to Make Our Post-Privacy Economy Work for You'.

It's hardly a secret that the airline industry is facing myriad challenges, notably in the marketing and distribution areas, as companies with personalised data, and the analytics and artificial intelligence to go with it, become greater threats to the stability of the traditional airline model.

This high-level aviation event, hosted at Powerscourt Hotel Resort & Spa in County Wicklow, to the south of Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland, for a sixth time, is a forum for debate and discussion of strategic issues facing the aviation industry and it is attracting delegate interest from across the globe.

The main summit subject is "Airlines making money: a vision of the future", with an underlying theme of disruption and change and it will bring together global leaders to discuss key strategic issues and challenges facing the industry as new technologies come online and tougher regulations create downward pressure on traditional revenue streams. The forum will also explore adapting business models, smart innovations and how the industry can embrace collaborative partnerships to adapt and flourish in the digital age.