Best European Airports crowned at Third Regional Heat of the Routes Airport Marketing Awards

TOULOUSE, France – Hamburg Airport was declared the overall winner in the third regional heat of the internationally-accredited Routes Airport Marketing Awards held in Toulouse last night. The awards were presented at the gala dinner of the 5th Routes Europe – the key networking event for the region’s air service development industry.

Winners were selected in four categories, including Central Europe, Mediterranean & Southern Europe, Western Europe, and Scandinavia & The Baltics. Hamburg Airport (Germany) triumphed in Central Europe. Athens International Airport (Greece) was crowned winner of the Mediterranean & Southern Europe category. Western Europe saw Brussels Airport (Belgium) the winner, and Bergen Airport Flesland (Norway) won the final category of Scandinavia & The Baltics.

Hamburg Airport had won over the judging panel by not only providing an excellent submission in terms of its content, but effectively marketing to their airlines through a creative and innovative campaign. This demonstrated the airport’s enthusiasm and commitment to route development and the benefits of developing and maintaining relationships with their airline partners.

Jorgen Kearsley, general manager, Aviation Marketing, Hamburg Airport, on the achievement: “I think we were quite creative this year. Our objective was to tell the industry about what we do and how committed we are to our work. We take the relationships with our airline partners very seriously, and our strategy is to provide the carriers with value-added analysis and at the same time demonstrate how much we enjoy working with them. We truly love our jobs and wanted to share this with the industry.”

As the overall winner for the entire Europe region, Hamburg Airport will now be automatically entered into the shortlist for the World Routes Airport Marketing Awards to be held at World Routes in Vancouver from the September 19-21, 2010. There they will compete against winners from other regional Routes events: Routes Americas (Edmonton International Airport), Routes Asia (Auckland Airport), Routes Africa, and Routes CIS (to be decided at the respective events).

During the voting period airlines nominated their preferred airports on Routesonline using criteria such as the airport’s route development and marketing communications activities. The shortlisted airports then had to submit a case study to support their nominations to the judging panel.

Routes Airport Marketing Awards are deemed to be the most prestigious in the industry. This is because they are the only award based purely on rewarding excellence in route development and nominated only by airlines.

Routes is pleased to announce the full list of winners:

CENTRAL EUROPE

Winner: Hamburg Airport

Highly Commended: Zurich Airport and Vienna International Airport

MEDITERRANEAN & SOUTHERN EUROPE

Winner: Athens International Airport

Highly Commended: Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport

WESTERN EUROPE

Winner: Brussels Airport

Highly Commended: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

SCANDINAVIA & THE BALTICS

Winner: Bergen Airport Flesland

Highly Commended: Copenhagen Airport and Malmö Airport

OVERALL WINNER: HAMBURG AIRPORT

ABOUT ROUTES

World Routes – The World Route Development Forum – is the world renowned annual airline and airport networking event. Routes facilitates and encourages the role of airports in the development of air services through organizing global and region specific airline/airport networking forums.

This year’s World Route Development Forum will take place in Vancouver, Canada, September 19-21.

Routes Regional events include Routes Americas, Routes Asia, Routes Europe, Routes Africa, and Routes CIS.

Routes was founded in 1995 by Chairman Mike Howarth as part of the Manchester UK-based ASM Ltd., a consultancy specializing in the field of route development for airports. www.asm-global.com

Both companies are now subsidiaries of RDG – The Route Development Group – which is the leading global solutions provider in the strategically important “route development” sector of air transport. www.routedevgroup.com

The Airport Marketing Awards were established in 1997 to honor the very best in airport marketing. It is the only industry awards scheme rewarding excellence in airport marketing to airlines.