The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that its 2026 World Safety and Operations Conference (WSOC) will focus on the human elements in keeping aviation safe and resilient, under the theme “Performance Through People”. The event is scheduled to take place from 6 to 8 October in Istanbul, Türkiye, and will be hosted by Turkish Airlines.
“As technology, data, AI, and automation transform how aviation manages risk, this year’s WSOC will focus on the people who use these tools every day to make critical decisions in response to disruption, to manage daily operations, or improve processes and ways of working,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security. He added that the conference brings safety professionals together to share experience and learn from one another.
In addition to Careen and IATA’s Director of Safety Mark Searle, the announced speakers include Turkish Airlines CEO Ahmet Olmuştur, EASA Executive Director Florian Guillermet, FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety Jodi Baker, and Boeing’s Senior Vice President and Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Don Ruhmann, among others.
The conference program will feature four tracks—Safety, Cabin Operations, Operations, and Crisis Management—with highlights such as geopolitical risk and its impact on performance, human-centred safety, aligning risk appetite with human performance, and future-proofing aviation safety talent.
The WSOC will also include workshops and forums covering safety management and human factors, airspace efficiency and resilience, advancing safety insights with GADM, emergency response planning, and an IATA Turbulence Aware forum. The conference is open to accredited members of the press.
