Aviation Connect 2026 opened this week in Athens, drawing air cargo delegates into a Tuesday-to-Thursday programme split across a collection of rooms and tracks.

The Greek capital provided the backdrop with sunshine, warm temperatures and the occasional rain shower — a fittingly changeable setting for an event that had plenty going on.

Organisers spread delegates across sessions covering pharma, GSSAs, air cargo handling, cargo airport development, road feeder services, airline ground services, GSE, and ramp operations. That breadth of coverage is one of the things that makes Aviation Connect a fixture on the air cargo calendar — and, by many accounts, the sector's favourite event.

The gathering, however, carried what attendees described as an unfortunate early dip, a subdued start to proceedings that sat oddly against the breadth of the agenda on offer.

For forwarders, carriers and ground handlers, the value of the event lies in exactly that spread: pharma logistics and cold-chain handling discussions rub shoulders with road feeder service economics and ramp operations, sectors that rarely share a stage elsewhere. GSSAs — general sales and service agents — and airport cargo development got dedicated track time, signalling where operators see commercial pressure and opportunity heading into 2026.

The Athens setting itself underscored the industry's geographic drift toward secondary hubs in southern Europe, where airport authorities are investing in cargo infrastructure to capture flows squeezed out of congested northern gateways.

Delegates worked the corridors between sessions as the weather shifted outside — rain showers interrupting the sunshine in much the same way the "unfortunate early dip" punctured the opening of an otherwise busy three days.

Whether the dip proves a passing shower or a lasting front will become clearer as the event matures through its Thursday close, and as the conversations started in Athens — across pharma, handling and GSA lines — translate into contracts and capacity decisions for the year ahead.