Once again, Routes underlined its position as the world's leading route-planning forum, with a record-breaking attendance at Amsterdam on 17-19 September. And once again the highlight came with the Routes Airport Marketing Awards, presented at the gala dinner before an audience of more than 500 executives from airlines and airports worldwide.
Awards have been a feature of the Routes event for the past few years, but this time they came with a difference. As in previous years, the overall scope of the Awards remained unchanged: to recognise excellence in airport marketing and development strategies. But a decision was taken to dispense with the traditional call for entries and subsequent judging panel. Instead, there was a bold new initiative to throw the judging open to the Routes airline delegates themselves. For the uninitiated, the Routes concept - first pioneered six years ago by Airline Business and UK consultancy Airport Strategy &Marketing - centres on scheduled business meetings at which airport route developers are able to present airline route strategists with their latest marketing plans.
The idea behind the new style of voting for the Awards was to give a free choice to airlines to vote for any of the airports on the strength of their marketing presentations.
Voting took place after the first full day, with winners and runners up nominated by close to half of the airlines represented at the event. Airlines were asked to vote for winner and runners up in each of five marketing categories.
Regional Airport - an airport predominantly catering for feeder or second-city flights within a specific region such as Europe or North America. City Airport - a downtown airport, primarily designed to serve an audience of city centre commuters. International Airport - an airport with a range of international and intercontinental destinations but not yet classified as a major network hub. Major Hub - one of the world's top 50 airports, roughly handling over 20 million passengers a year (or freight equivalent) on a global network. The Routes Award - airline delegates were asked to vote for the one overall airport which they felt had delivered the strongest marketing message at Routes.In addition to these marketing categories, the airline delegates were also asked to vote for one further category.
Advertising Campaign of the Year - close to 60 press advertisements from 20 airports were submitted for this category and airlines were asked to vote after seeing a display in the foyer of the Routes hotel.Perhaps fittingly, the overall Routes Award went to Schiphol, the host in Amsterdam and, of course, host for the gala dinner. That was set in the old Buers van Berlarge - Amsterdam's century-old former stock exchange building and an important piece of architectural heritage in its own right.
Dallas/Fort Worth was also a notable winner on the night, not only scooping the Hub category, but also winning in the advertising section. Congratulations to all of those airports which emerged from an extremely tough competition as gold winners or with commendations. To the others, we wish you good luck next year when Routes goes to Dublin.
Source: Airline Business
