2014 was another record year for Routes, part of UBM EMEA, with more delegates than ever before attending its World Routes and Regional Route Development Forums. A record number of 6,116 delegates representing 144 countries attended the six events that Routes organised around the globe in 2014. These forums, which focus entirely on air service development, have become the must attend events of the annual calendar recognised for shaping the world’s future air networks.
Katie Bland, Director Routes, UBM Live commented, “The record attendance from airlines, airports and an increasing number of representatives from tourism authorities and other aviation stakeholders at our 2014 events highlights the importance of air service development and its economic impact on national and regional economies. With 27,300 face-to-face meetings taking place at our 2014 events, we offer the most efficient forum for everyone involved in negotiating and creating new air links.”
In total, 630 airlines and 1,500 airports were represented at the events, which took place in six countries in 2014. Five successful Routes Regional events took place during the year to foster air links within the world’s key regional aviation markets with the 7th Routes Americas in San Salvador, El Salvador, the 12th Routes Asia in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, the 9th Routes Europe in Marseille, France, the 9th Routes Africa in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and the first ever Routes Silk Road in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Almost 3,000 delegates gathered in Chicago, Illinois, USA at the end of September as World Routes, the world’s largest civil aviation gathering, celebrated its 20th anniversary at an event which was co-hosted by Chicago Department of Aviation and Choose Chicago. The event also saw attendance from many of the world’s leading carriers, including all of the top 10 and 40 of the top 50 airlines (measured by Available Seat Kilometres (ASK)).
Overall, this year’s events saved attendees 45,000 estimated days of travel by having their meetings at Routes. 11,800 users were active on Routesonline with 407,000 Route Exchange profile views supporting preparation for the meetings which took place.
Looking ahead to 2015, organisers are planning to build on the improvements made in 2014 and enhance the event experience even further. Routes events have already been confirmed and scheduled for 2015 and beyond, thanks to the in-depth host selection process, which sees airports and tourism authorities submit a competitive bid to host one of the premier route development networking events. 2015 will see more ‘firsts’ for the event as World Routes heads to Africa for the first time, when the 21st World Route Development Forum takes place in Durban, South Africa and Routes Europe heads to the UK for the first time in its 10 year history. In addition, 2015 will see Routes Americas taking place in Denver, marking the first time the event has taken place in the US, Routes Silk Road return to Tbilisi when the event is hosted for the second consecutive year by United Airports of Georgia and the inaugural Routes Middle East & Africa event take place in Bahrain.
2014 was also a phenomenal year for the Future Hosting Team with many announcements made over the last 12 months including two World Routes events. Future events that have already been announced for 2016 and beyond include: Routes Europe 2016 (Krakow, Poland), Routes Asia 2016 (Manila, the Philippines), World Routes 2016 (Chengdu, China) and World Routes 2017 (Barcelona, Catalonia).
