Crystal and the team at the Dutch Caribbean Air Navigation Service Provider (DC-ANSP) and IATA asked Matthew to give the opening keynote at the Future of Aviation summit, held at the Renaissance Wind Creek Curaçao Resort. The invite-only audience of government ministers, leaders and experts from Europe, North America and Latin America met to discuss the future of the airport, aviation and tourism industry from a regional and international perspective.
The industry is still recovering from the deep injuries inflicted by the pandemic, while grappling with an ever-changing geopolitical and technological environment. Matthew looked at what the leading players are doing now, and at what the near and far future holds.
"We're witnessing what I call a Wright Brothers 2.0 moment, with significant new developments in everything from airframes, energy, and propulsion as companies focus on costs, efficiency, ESG, and speed."Matthew Griffin, Curaçao, March 2025
He began with a long view of airports, airport operations, Air Traffic Control (ATC) and Air Traffic Management (ATM), each being reshaped in different ways by the rapid development of different technologies. He then turned to aviation itself, where he sees a Wright Brothers 2.0 moment: significant new developments in airframes, energy and propulsion as companies focus on cost, efficiency, ESG and speed, with speeds ranging from Mach 1 to above Mach 25.
Matthew closed with the future of aviation maintenance and security, border control and the workforce, including the decentralisation of ATC and the technologies the industry already has at its disposal to solve its well-known ATC hiring crisis.
