Our
ThinkingPassenger Terminal EXPO 2026 - team takeaways
The 2026 Passenger Terminal EXPO and Conference made one thing clear: the aviation industry is no longer satisfied with mere operational efficiency. The conversation has shifted from the mechanics of movement to the nuances of human experience.
From the rise of sensory comfort in inclusive design to the integration of local art as a wayfinding tool, this year’s event highlighted a sector in transition. We saw a move away from tech-led solutions toward people-first strategies, where AI and automation serve to empower frontline staff rather than replace the human touch. Our team has distilled the key themes, gaps, and takeaways from the floor to help you navigate the evolving landscape of the customer (or guest!) journey.
What themes did we hear?
Accessibility and Inclusive Design: It was great to see accessibility and inclusive design was given significantly greater prominence at this year's conference. Emily Yates, Head of Accessibility & Inclusive Design, noted from the talks on the Barrier Free & Inclusive Travel track she co-chaired with Kirk Goodlet from InterVISTAS, the topics ranged from operations to innovation to specific projects and accessible products. In particular, it was brilliant to see sensory comfort in aviation was discussed this year - adding a new dimension. In addition, within the EXPO, it was great to see the balanced blend between product and service on offer, particularly important from an inclusive design perspective when we’re thinking about the importance of design and operations to merge together within aviation and transport end to end journeys.
Aligning physical environments with operations: It was interesting to see so many conversations around the necessity of aligning the physical environment in an airport with the operations, the management, the digital space. Nuala O’Sullivan, Principal Accessibility & Inclusive Design Consultant, spoke about this on her panel talk with King Salman International Airport, but also heard others focusing on ideal future journeys for disabled people, exploring how physical spaces, operations, staff training, and digital supports all fall into place to create more agency.
Collaboration and customer ownership: David Watts, Managing Director, noted there were interesting conversations around the continuing discussions about who "owns the customer" between the airline and the airport. As an airport conference, there was acknowledgement that they are still wrestling with the question that the airline owns the customer. Encouragingly however, Nuala observed there was evidence of airports and airlines collaborating more closely, with accessibility assessments observed being carried out on airports and airlines as a single entity, which is really interesting to see.
People-led, not tech-led transformation: Lisa Baker, Head of Experience Design and Sustainability observed that airports are shifting from just "moving passengers" to "hosting people". While AI, biometrics, and automation were heavily featured, the consistent message was that technology alone does not deliver a better experience. The airports that are seeing real progress are investing in people, co-creating solutions with frontline teams, coaching leaders and customer experience through change and bringing staff along early - if people don’t buy into the change it simply won’t land.
Was anything missing from the conversation?
Airport mobility: Nuala noted that the challenge of increasingly long travel distances in growing airport terminals was raised, but not sufficiently answered. While innovative solutions like autonomous wheelchairs were mentioned, there was a distinct lack of successful case studies or comprehensive answers on how to make airport mobility work seamlessly. We wouldn’t be surprised to hear more about this topic at next years’ event.
Multimodal journeys: David noted the conference was highly focused on the airport stage of the customer journey, with not as much acknowledgment of the airport's role within a wider multimodal journey, particularly how it connects to surface transport and other modes of travel. It would be interesting to acknowledge the connection to surface transport and other modes to encompass the end to end customer journey.
Key takeaways…
A shift toward ambition in design: The industry is moving past doing the bare minimum for compliance or having to justify inclusive design. The new ambition is focused on reaching the "best possible world" by creating spaces that offer welcome, excitement, and autonomy in design.
Tech must serve the human experience: There’s always a lot at PTE around the technology and particularly systems giving airports overall data analytics around the operation of the airport - we see that evolution in those with more machine learning, AI, digital twins etc. But perhaps there is an evolution of that in the conference about how the use of that tech in the operation can connect in better in to delivering better service and experience for the customers - we saw lots of this in the EXPO and companies providing that - so it would be a good challenge to see how this is joined up within the conference.
Empowering frontline staff with real-time insights: Giving frontline staff the tools, authority, and confidence to act on these alerts and solve problems while the passenger is still in the terminal is becoming a major driver of customer satisfaction. Real time insight is becoming a game changer - Lisa noted the moving away from traditional post-journey surveys, airports are utilising live operational feedback to spot issues instantly. Staff are able to solve these problems in real time - the shift is from feedback going beyond reporting to immediate action.
Breaking down silos for consistency: Passengers do not see the complex, siloed ecosystems of an airport; they only experience their journey as a whole. The best airports are focusing on connecting every single touchpoint so that the end-to-end journey feels smooth, coherent, and intentional, rather than disconnected.
Prioritising emotional well-being and "sense of place": There is a growing emphasis on the emotional experience of travellers. Operational efficiency is now seen as the baseline, not the differentiator. This emphasis is on stress reduction, clarity throughout the journey, and creating a strong "sense of place" so passengers feel an emotional connection to the community and country they are travelling through - it’s often the first and last touchpoint into a country.
Integration of art into the passenger experience: Adam Parkes, Principal Consultant and Behavioural Design lead, observed within the conference a great example from JFK airport of integration of art into the new Terminal One development, weaving multi-sensory art into the passenger experience narrative throughout the terminal (not just in one location). The airport has strived to create a memorable gateway experience for people entering or leaving New York by curating artists from across the city with a shared common theme grounded in New York's culture. Adam reflects that this end to end approach can be useful for wayfinding, as the art can provide landmark moments for passengers to recall and to orientate themselves within a space, as well as elevating the transport hub experience beyond a smooth, efficient process to one with moments of joy!
Passenger, Customer or Guest experience: Throughout several of the conference sessions, the conversation shifted to the growing use of the term "guest experience" within airports, in place of “passenger experience”. “Guest” draws its roots from the hospitality and events industry. Airport operators seem to be increasingly using the "guest experience" with a hospitality focused intent to elevate the overall experience, asking how they can best serve their guests' needs, with an emphasis on the commercial retail offerings. Adam poses a question for future consideration: whether during the design process adopting "guest experience" allows us to map the right journeys and holistically consider the needs of all airport “users”, or whether we still need to keep an eye on “passengers” to ensure we understand the complexities of the operational processes, the range of inclusive passenger personas, and their interaction with airport touch points, as well as how they engage with the commercial offerings within the space. We suspect it will be more important how the experience and journey is mapped - not just what we call them.
In summary...
PTE 2026 showed that the industry is shifting from tech-led automation to people-led transformation. Success requires moving beyond basic compliance toward an ambitious, ‘best possible world’ design that prioritises emotional wellbeing, inclusion, stress reduction, and a genuine sense of place. While the EXPO highlighted advanced digital tools, the consensus remains that technology must serve the human experience, not define it. The path forward lies in aligning physical environments with digital operations to create a seamless, autonomous journey for every guest.
Written by:
Fionnuala O'Sullivan
Principal Accessibility and Inclusive Design Consultant
Nuala has a wealth of experience providing technical inclusive design guidance across all project stages and various sectors, including mixed-use & residential masterplans, commercial, transport & universities. Nuala is a passionate advocate for socially equitable, data-driven design solutions in the built environment. Nuala has NRAC accreditation at consultant level and is a Universal Design Assessor for the Civic Trust Awards.
Lisa Baker
Head of Experience Design & Sustainability
Lisa is a Chartered Human Factors Specialist with 18 years of experience across various industries, including healthcare, transport, culture and heritage. Lisa specialises in bridging human factors and service design to create innovative and sustainable customer services and experiences, grounded in evidence.
Emily Yates
Head of Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Emily has worked on numerous accessibility initiatives for national and international organisations, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Heathrow Airport. Emily has also worked with the Council of Europe and sat on equality boards advising premier league football clubs.
Adam Parkes
Principal Human Factors Consultant
Adam has extensive experience providing user centered design insight to complex and challenging design programmes in airports, transport hubs and public buildings. Adam gets to the heart of the user experience and understands how the design can meet their needs to be effective, efficient and inherently intuitive.
David Watts
Managing Director
David is our Managing Director with over 20 years of practice as a Human Factors and design consultant. He has delivered projects across sectors including rail, O&G, airports, utilities and the emergency services. He has worked with clients such as Network Rail, Siemens, easyJet, WSP, National Express, TfL and HS2.