The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has partnered with Philippine Airlines (PAL) to host the 2025 Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar (APASS 2025) in Manila.
The two-day event will be held on September 10-11, 2025 at the Hilton Manila. The biannual event was last held in 2018 in Seoul, and the upcoming seminar will be the first since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Safety Without Borders
The 2025 Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar will center around the theme of: “Safety Without Borders: Global Partnerships, Local Impact.”
Captain Roshan Joshi, Director-Technical Affairs, explained to AeroTime why the theme is crucial.
“Safety is not confined by geography. The airlines that we represent, and also the airlines attending the seminar all operate across jurisdictions. But the risks, such as operational resilience, air traffic complexities, runway incursions, all affect us in the same way globally.”
“We wanted to emphasize that these safety measures must be locally actionable, but need to be developed through global cooperation,” Roshan added.
Topics that will be discussed during the seminar in the form of breakout sessions and panel discussion will center on operational resilience, human factors, safety leadership, and risks arising from technology as well as evolving airspace threats, including spoofing, fatigue management and data integration.
“Safety is not a competitive issue.”
Subhas Menon, Director General of AAPA, highlighted another crucial reason for airlines and safety organizations and authorities to attend the conference: sharing best safety practices.
“When it comes to safety, we always emphasize that it is not a competitive issue. Safety management is all about risk management, so it is important for the industry to come together and share their knowledge, expertise and best practices,” Menon said during a discussion with AeroTime.
Menon also shared that as part of AAPA’s progressive approach, safety organizations such as Flight Safety Foundation, a non-profit group that conducts research and advocacy in aviation safety, will also share data during the conference that will be analyzed and discussed among airlines.
“As aviation safety challenges grow in complexity, our collective commitment to collaboration, data sharing and cross-disciplinary learning becomes even more critical. APASS 2025 will offer a unique opportunity for the Asia Pacific safety community to address high-priority safety concerns and strengthen alignment across safety domains. We are proud to partner with Philippine Airlines to host this important event in Manila,” Menon said.
An airline-centric seminar
What makes APASS 2025 different from other aviation safety seminars, according to Captain Joshi, is that the topics are airline-centric. The topics and issues are raised by the airlines, especially those affecting carriers based in the Asia Pacific region.
“It’s a collaborative effort. The airlines contribute to the discussion. Issues such as operational resilience, fatigue management, cyber security and GPS spoofing threats are issues raised by airlines so they [airlines] build the agenda of the seminar,” Captain Joshi said.
APASS 2025 is the only aviation security seminar to be held in Southeast Asia, so while safety issues are global, discussions and topics will be centered around the APAC region.
“Bringing key aviation industry players together is essential in advancing our commitment to safety,” said Captain Daniel Oliver M. de Castro, Philippine Airlines Assistant Vice President for Safety..
“We believe the Asia Pacific Aviation Safety Seminar will reinforce passenger trust in the reliability and safety of air travel, which is vital for the industry’s long-term growth,” de Castro added.
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