The 11th Routes Asia event will take place from 17-19 March in Mumbai. With over 600 delegates representing 300 airlines and airports from across the region, the event is expected to match or even surpass last year’s record total. Routes Asia is the only annual event designed to facilitate meetings between senior airport executives and airline route decision makers as well as tourism authorities from the entire Asia region.
The event is expected to attract over 90 airlines from across the region. The seniority of airline delegates is very high with CEOs and other high level delegates from a variety of carriers, including Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo; Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo; Neil Mills, CEO, Spicejet and Hou Wei, Chief Marketing Officer, Hainan Airlines.
Airlines such as Air India, Jet Airways, Spicejet and IndiGo will attend with very senior delegations along with Air India Express and JetLite. The event also promises a large Chinese presence with Air China, Shenzhen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, China Eastern and China Southern Airlines all registered to attend. The Low Cost sector will also be well represented with attendance from Jetstar Airways, LionAir, The AirAsia Group and Tiger Airways along with major carriers Qantas, Malaysia Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Etihad, Japan Airlines and Philippine Airlines. Other carriers who have signed up for the Indian event recently include Singapore Airlines, Silk Air, GoAir, Emirates and Spring Airlines.
Almost 220 airport delegates representing 210 airports have also registered to attend the event to date. Recent registrations include key airports and tourism authorities including GMR Hyderabad International Airport, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Changi Airport Group, Queen Alia International Airport, King Fahd International Airport, Abu Dhabi Airports Company, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as well as the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The Routes Asia Strategy Summit will open Routes Asia in Mumbai. It will provide a valuable insight into aviation across the region as panels of leading industry experts take part in a number of moderator led discussions addressing key air service development issues such as ‘Developing Hubs in Asia and Chasing the Tiger and the Dragon’, which will look the fast-growing outbound travel markets for China and India. The session ‘Where next for Asian Low Cost Carriers?’ will look at this rapidly evolving segment of the Asian aviation market.
David Stroud, Executive Vice President, Routes is looking forward to the event. “It is an interesting time for aviation in Asia. Overall this market of four billion people is growing very fast, but the situation is also very different from country to country. It is certainly timely for Routes Asia to return to India, a market on which airlines from all over the world have set their eyes and are looking for ways to expand,” he said.
Commenting on the overwhelming response, G. V. Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, Mumbai International Airport, which is also the host organisation, stated, “The record number of registrations from the aviation industry for the 11th Routes Asia 2013 is extremely gratifying. We at GVK CSIA are overwhelmed by the ever increasing delegate registrations that have indeed exceeded our expectations. Hosting Routes Asia 2013 is a great honour and we extend a warm welcome to all participating delegates to visit Mumbai and discuss business opportunities of air services to this most dynamic Indian city.”
