Productive meetings and intensive networking characterized the third edition of Routes Americas, the biggest networking event for the region’s air transport industry and the most successful to date. Hosted by Lima Airport Partners and held in Lima, Peru, the forum attracted airlines, airports, and tourism authorities from North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean, and once again proved to be the number one air transport platform for all the Americas.
Over the three days of the event, delegates discussed air service expansion and performance in an effort to leverage on the region’s vast opportunities. The strength and continuous growth of South America’s air transport industry and the route development potential in the Caribbean were of particular interest at this strategically important event.
While Central America maintained its strong airport presence with Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and Honduras in attendance, other parts of the region significantly raised their profiles at the event, including Atlantic Canada Airports Association and Las Vegas/McCarran International Airport, who for the first time decided to promote their services not only at World Routes in Vancouver, but also at the region’s premier air transport networking event.
Brian Solis from Southwest Florida International Airport commented: “Apart from increasing our domestic traffic, we want to expand our network across the whole continent; a particular focus is Latin America. Our meetings here in Lima have been very beneficial. We met quite a few airlines we hadn’t had meetings with before, and at the same time we re-connected with existing clients. The event was, as always, very well organized and spot-on.”
Bob Hill, director of Route Planning at American Airlines, commented: “As always, the event was really successful for us. We are very interested in South America – Peru and Colombia, for example, are very important markets for us. We are planning to add capacity within certain countries in South America, and here at the event we once again had the opportunity to start and continue essential discussions.”
“Routes makes it possible for us to have wide and consistent exposure. We meet with about 125-150 airports every year, and only up to 35 of those airports would visit us at our headquarters. The majority of our meetings take place at Routes events,” he added.
Mauricio Emboaba Moreira, Planning and Statistics director at Gol Transportes Aéreos, elaborated on his company’s plans to improve the route network, especially regarding the Caribbean. “We are looking at new places in the flight range of seven hours. This basically includes all of the Caribbean. Over the past couple of days, we had the opportunity to discuss new services with airports and tourism authorities, which will help us to develop joint ventures. I am going back to Brazil with very promising contacts and relationships.”
The 4th Routes Americas in 2011 will be held in the Dominican Republic. This year’s World Routes will take place in Vancouver on September 19-21, 2010. For further details, please visit the official website at www.routesonline.com .
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