African airports and tourism make impact at Routes Middle East & Africa 2015 awards

Around 350 aviation professionals were gathered in Bahrain to witness the presentation of the awards and to take part in this year's Routes Middle East & Africa – the inaugural route development event for all aviation based companies who wish to conduct business to, from and within the region.

The annual Routes Marketing Awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. They provide the airline community with the chance to have their say, regarding the airport or tourism authority they think has provided the best overall services to them relating to route development and marketing over the past year, to establish new or maintain and develop existing routes.

While Dubai International Airport was announced as the overall winner of the Middle East & Africa heat of the 2015 Routes Marketing Awards, winners also included Kilimanjaro International Airport and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, with Cape Town International Airport being ‘highly commended.’

The shortlisted finalists were nominated by airline network planners; a respected panel of judges, comprising senior members of the airline network planning community from the region, reviewed the lists and submissions from the nominated airports in order to determine the winners. The panel consisted of the following judges:

Richard Bodin, chief commercial officer, Fastjet

Dharmender T. Hunjan, vice president airline partnerships, Qatar Airways

Matome Ramokgobedi, network planning, commercial, South African Airways

The awards will culminate at World Routes in Durban this September, with the overall winner of each Regional Award, automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Awards. Dubai International Airport joins Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Tourism Australia and Brussels Airport, recently announced as overall winners of the Americas, Asia and European heats respectively.

The full list of companies shortlisted under each award category were as follows:

Over 20 Million Passengers

Dubai International Airport – Winner & Overall Winner

Abu Dhabi International Airport – Highly Commended

King Abdulaziz International Airport

4 – 20 Million Passengers

Madinah Airport – Winner

Addis Ababa Bole International Airport

Cape Town International Airport – Highly Commended

Lagos - Murtala Muhammed

O.R. Tambo International Airport

Queen Alia International Airport

Under 4 Million Passengers

Kilimanjaro International Airport – Winner

Entebbe International Airport

Julius Nyerere International Airport – Highly Commended

Quatro de Fevereiro Airport

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport

Destination Marketing Award

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority – Winner

Jordan Tourism Board

Tourism Ministry of Egypt and Egyptian Tourist Authority

Tanzania Tourist Board