Announcing the Return of Skift Aviation Forum 2026 to New York

Airlines are carrying more passengers than at any point in history, and the industry still cannot agree on whether the economics behind that growth are durable. Fuel eased, demand held, and the profit that was supposed to follow arrived unevenly. Some carriers are widening margins while others are running full aircraft at returns that do not justify the capital behind them. That divergence is the story of the next 18 months, and it is the reason the 6th annual Skift Aviation Forum returns to New York this November. Last year drew over 320 attendees from 14 countries, 63% of them director-level or above, across 176 companies. When capacity, loyalty economics, AI, and capital allocation get argued at this altitude, the people in the seats are the ones who carry the answer back into decisions their own companies are about to make. Where the Profitability Question Actually Sits Profitability in aviation runs on discipline now, not fuel prices. It comes down to who holds capacity when a competitor blinks and who prices premium cabins to the demand that is genuinely there, without letting loyalty revenue grow at the expense of the fare base underneath it. These are the calls that separate the carriers compounding returns from the ones posting traffic records and thin quarters. Skift Aviation Forum puts that argument in front of the operators making it. The Leaders in the Room Luis Gallego, CEO of International Airlines Group, brings the view from one of the few groups converting scale into consistent margin. David Neeleman, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Breeze Airways, has launched more airlines than anyone in the modern era and is still redefining what a startup carrier can be. John Ackerman, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports, adds the infrastructure constraint that every growth plan eventually runs into. More speakers to follow. Stay updated here. Past attendees describe the value plainly. “I’ve been to a lot of conferences that wasted my time. This one did not.” Another put the caliber of the room first: “Skift has become the source of travel intelligence. This shone through in the calibre of the speakers and the attendees.” Skift Aviation Forum kicks off the evening of November 11 with an opening reception at Apella by Alexandria, where airline executives and investors connect before the main event. The following day, November 12, programming runs a full day at the TWA Hotel at JFK, a building that stood for aviation’s golden age and now hosts the argument over where the industry goes from here. The prices increase as the event draws closer, so the earlier you purchase your ticket, the more you will save.