What will the airline industry look like in five years? Or even one year? Will the legacy carriers be able to compete with the successful low-cost carriers like JetBlue and Southwest? Hospitality industry leaders will hear five top airline executives address these questions during the featured airline panel at the 80th annual Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC), a unique student-run hotel for a weekend and educational conference to be held April 7-10 on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY.

“We chose the airline industry for one of our panel discussions because of its importance to the hospitality industry as a whole,” says Kurt Zitner, student managing director of HEC 80. Panelists will include representatives from JetBlue, American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and MAIR Holdings. Cornell University Professor Emeritus Alfred Kahn, a pioneer of airline deregulation, will present an historical, outsider's perspective.

Industry executives attending this year's HEC will also be able to visit The Robert A. and Jan M. Beck Center, a new facility providing state-of-the-art learning space for the school's undergraduate and graduate programs.

The 35,000-square-foot center features a lecture hall, case study rooms, classrooms, meeting rooms, an expanded computer center and a hospitality suite.