IATA will hold its fourth World Sustainability Symposium (WSS) in Brussels on 13-14 October 2026, putting airlines, fuel producers and EU policymakers in the same room to argue over the rules that will decide how much airports pay for decarbonization compliance. The event matters to terminal and infrastructure teams because the agenda is explicitly about scaling Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) supply and harmonising carbon market rules, both of which land as capital and operating costs on the airport side of the fence, not just the airline side, a cost pattern explained in our explainer on how airports make money.
The IATA pressroom confirms the symposium runs across two days at a Brussels venue chosen deliberately: the city is where the EU’s aviation sustainability rules, including SAF blending mandates, are drafted. IATA, which describes itself as the trade association for the world’s airlines, is billing the event as a forum for closing the gap between Europe’s decarbonization targets and the infrastructure needed to hit them.
Three themes, one cost question
The published agenda groups discussion into three tracks: scaling near-term fuel solutions such as HEFA-based SAF, Low Carbon Aviation Fuels and co-processing; designing SAF and carbon credit markets that are global and liquid rather than fragmented by region; and understanding non-CO2 effects and lifecycle emissions from aircraft. None of these tracks is airport-specific on paper, but every one of them eventually requires fuel storage, hydrant systems, or energy infrastructure that airport operators, not airlines, typically fund and build.
Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist, is quoted in the release saying Europe “has set ambitious objectives for air transport’s decarbonization, but policies often do not recognize these interdependencies,” and that the industry’s transition “cannot happen in isolation.” That framing is the clearest signal in the release: airports waiting for SAF mandates to arrive, rather than investing now in low-emission ground equipment like the fleet upgrades covered in our report on Ontario International Airport’s FAA VALE grant, risk falling behind on compliance costs be purely an airline cost are reading the policy wrong.
Who is in the room
Confirmed speakers include Roberto Alvo, CEO of LATAM Airlines Group; Jonathon Counsell, Group Head of Sustainability at IAG; Bertrand de Lacombe of Airbus; and Denise Pronk, Head of Sustainability at Schiphol Airport, alongside officials from the European Commission’s DG MOVE, the European Parliament, the International Energy Agency and the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. IATA says further speakers from energy companies, financial institutions and governments will be announced ahead of the event.
For the first time, WSS runs consecutively with Wings of Change Europe at the same venue, with WSS registrants getting complimentary access to the 15 October session. That pairing matters for anyone budgeting a single Brussels trip to cover both the decarbonization policy debate and the wider European aviation strategy conversation.
What this means for airports
Airports already running parallel decarbonization pilots have a stake in how the SAF and carbon market rules are harmonised. Rotterdam The Hague’s work on liquid hydrogen through the HYDRA-II drone trials, Stansted’s electric bus shuttle trial with National Express, and Hong Kong’s TNFD-aligned sustainability reporting are all examples of airports spending ahead of firm policy, exactly the interdependency Owens Thomsen references. A Brussels rulebook that harmonises SAF and carbon credit markets could either validate that spending or reshape it.
WSS is open to accredited press and registration details sit on IATA’s programme page. Airport sustainability and infrastructure leads with a stake in SAF supply contracts or carbon market exposure should treat 13-14 October as the date to track for policy direction, even if attendance is not on the cards.
