Around 600 delegates registered for Aviation Connect 2026, which ran Tuesday to Thursday in Athens — but several attendees privately speculated that industry-wide budget cuts could thin attendance at air cargo events in the months and years ahead.

The multi-track format set the event apart from the traditional air cargo conference. Rather than sitting through a 45-minute panel because it happened to be on the agenda, delegates could pick and choose sessions relevant to them across pharma, GSSAs, air cargo handling, cargo airport development, road feeder services, airline ground services, GSE and ramp operations.

The trade-off was visible in the room counts. Some sessions looked distinctly sparse despite the headline registration figure — presumably not a satisfying outcome for the speakers who had prepared them.

An exhibition hall ran alongside the tracks, with companies showing off their latest products and services, and networking doing what networking does. The HACTL chocolate stand once again proved a returning favourite.

AI dominated the agenda — perhaps unsurprisingly — but not everyone welcomed the saturation. One delegate complained there was simply too much talk about it, and four others standing nearby quickly agreed. Their argument was not that AI lacks importance; it was that the technology is not yet mature enough to deliver changes proportional to the amount of attention it receives.

That scepticism, shared openly on the conference floor, signals a commercial reality for vendors and service providers selling AI-enabled products into air cargo: buyers at operator level are tiring of the pitch before the proofs arrive.

Away from the sessions, the social programme took advantage of the Athenian setting — sunshine, warm temperatures and the occasional rain shower providing a fittingly changeable backdrop. Tuesday's rooftop party featured synchronised swimmers: six women dressed as cabin crew, who removed their outfits to reveal swimwear before performing a 10-minute routine in the pool. The performance itself impressed, but its positioning immediately before the Women in Air Cargo Awards struck many as awkward. Celebrating women's professional achievements directly after a performance of women dressed as air staff stripping off seemed an unfortunate juxtaposition.

Wednesday's beach party followed, and despite the misstep, the general consensus among delegates was that Aviation Connect remains their favourite event of the year.

Organisers confirmed during the event that Aviation Connect 2027 will take place in Lisbon from 2–4 November.

Whether that event draws a comparable crowd may depend less on the programme and more on the industry's balance sheets. With significant budget cuts spreading across air cargo, the attendance speculation circulating in Athens this week points to a harder sell for conference organisers — and a more selective approach to travel spending from carriers, handlers and forwarders — through 2026 and into 2027.