It has been a busy 2011 for the Routes team with regional events in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Antalya, Turkey; Incheon, South Korea; Cagliari, Italy; Bamako’ Mali and our showcase World Routes event in Berlin, Germany. In this special seasonal issue of The HUB we take you behind the scenes at these events providing you with the stories that some staff, management and delegates hoped that you wouldn't hear.
Routes Americas – Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Aerodom hosted the 4th Routes Americas in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where airlines, airports and tourism leaders from across all the Americas all gathered at one event. With over 300 delegates in total from 60 airline delegates representing over 50 airlines and 110 airport delegates representing 105 airports, the event was the largest to date and consisted of a number of key features.
The Routes Americas Strategy Forum, a conference featuring high profile speakers including; the Honourable Edmond Bartlett, the Minister of Tourism for Jamacia, panel discussions featuring speakers from COPA Airlines and Delta Air Lines amongst others and a keynote address from Alex De Gunten, the Executive Director of ALTA. This together with two full days of One-to-One Meetings and a Route Exchange Airline Briefing by Southwest Airlines made this Routes Americas the one event of choice for USA, Latin America and the Caribbean.
BUT, plans for the Routes Americas Strategy Forum were thrown into disarray when, as members of the Routes team prepared the room, an unwelcome visitor arrived, causing chaos. As Beverly Ross, our Finance Administrator, screamed and jumped onto a chair others ran from the room. A message made it back to the organisers’ office that there was “a big lizard in the conference room”. Upon investigation it was found that the invader was not as big as had been suggested and became affectionately known as Boris while he was ushered out of the venue. Boris then became a Twitter hit as news of his appearance spread to the Manchester office and our colleagues in Antalya, Turkey at the inaugural Routes Tourism Mediterranean event.
Routes Americas also represented the first of two left luggage stories from 2011. Katie Bland our Future Hosts Director discovered upon arrival at Las Américas Airport in Santo Domingo that her checked bag had not found its way onto the flight. With important meetings with potential hosts of future events she was forced to borrow clothes from some of her colleagues in order to maintain her commitments. Did anyone notice? Let us know!
Routes Tourism Mediterranean – Antalya, Turkey
Hosted by ICF Airports and held in Antalya, Turkey this event attracted almost 200 delegates and was the first of its kind designed to bring the tourism and aviation industries serving the Mediterranean closer together in order to benefit tourism in the region. The event was supported by ICF Airports key stakeholders; TURSAB, AKTOB, the Gloria Resort and Turkish Airlines (THY) and included a full programme of delegate tours, ministerial destination briefings by Croatia, Greece and Turkey, One-to-One Meetings between airlines, airports, tourism authorities and tour operators and a fantastic hospitality programme, the highlight of which was Turkish dance group Fire of Anatolia!
BUT, did you know that in their attempts to get the party started in Antalya members of the Routes team made themselves front page news in a local newspaper. I am sure your mind is now racing about what took place, however, to disappoint you it was simply a story about the event including a large picture of Routes staff on the dance floor.
As many of you may be aware, our Vice President Commercial, Nigel Mayes, is a bit of an aviation nut so he was looking forward to his flight back to Manchester with a window seat so he could look out at the aircraft on the apron at Antalya Airport. The Routes travel team duly arranged a window seat for the flight home. However, upon boarding it was discovered to great amusement that Nigel’s window seat was one of the few on the aircraft that didn’t actually have a view out of a window.
An amusing story about poor Nigel, but not as unfortunate to those involved in the ‘Great Turkish Bath Bonding’. This is the story of the year that we all want to hear. However, following a last minute super injunction we are unable to name those involved or even report what took place. With potential legal ramifications I can still reveal though that it involved Mr X, Mr Y and Mr Z and they… well that will have to remain a secret!
Routes Asia – Incheon, South Korea
Hosted by Incheon International Airport Corporation, the 9th Routes Asia was held in Incheon, South Korea in April and attracted over 400 delegates in total made up of 120 airline delegates representing over 70 airlines and 200 airport delegates from 150 airports. The event included; the Routes Asia Strategy Forum featuring a keynote address from AirAsia X Chief Executive Officer, Azran Osman Rani; two full days of pre-scheduled One-to-One Meetings; the largest Routes Asia Networking Village to date; a spectacular Gala Evening and a Route Exchange Briefing by Thai Airways International, which resulted in a three times weekly air service between Bangkok and Brussels being introduced following the event.
BUT, despite the success of the event, for our Vice President Commercial, Nigel Mayes, Routes Asia was probably an event he would prefer to forget - then again he may not even remember what happened after two delegates helped him to get a little drunk by knocking back shots to a chorus of “Go Nigel, Go Nigel, Go Nigel!” I will not embarrass the guilty parties albeit to say they work for a leading low-cost airline and a major network carrier.
Routes Europe – Cagliari, Italy
Hosted by Cagliari Airport and held at the exclusive Forte Village resort, the 6th Routes Europe attracted over 700 delegates in total - 120 airline delegates representing over 67 airlines, 360 airport delegates representing 300 airports it resulted in a record number of attendees at this year’s event. One of the events key elements were the Route Exchange briefings from Aer Lingus, easyJet, Ryanair, Meridiana Fly and AirAsia X. Each briefing provided the attending airports to gain a fascinating and frank insight into the airline’s plans, ethos, requirements and key factors. For the first time, AirAsia X’s Senthil Balan, Head Network Planning & Regulatory Affairs revealed during his briefing a formal ‘Request for Proposals’ (RFP) for the placement process for new A330s.
The event also included a busy schedule of One-to-One Meetings and a fantastic programme of hospitality functions and sporting activities including karting, tennis and football. The event was also co-located with ACI Europe’s Regional Airports Forum.
BUT, did you know we had to make some major changes just weeks before delegates arrived in Sardinia? Just two weeks before the event our operations team were forced to change the location of the gala dinner after some stairs collapsed at the original venue. This also meant providing a little party train to carry delegates from the new venue to the resort’s nightclub, something that many have highlighted as one of the most memorable aspects of the event. 
To be honest, the train was a necessity as some delegates had taken to altering the signposts around the resort which had made finding the locations of the events and even your own rooms rather difficult. We are not going to name the person involved for fear of embarrassment to his new employer and nether are we going to identify those guilty parties that ‘hijacked’ a resort golf buggy and crashed it into one of the resort villas.
Having secured some important deals some delegates were in high spirits and unfortunately as lunch companions at one table will confirm, two executives from the UK were happy to burst into song at any opportunity, with a particular fascination for Spandau Ballet’s hit, Gold. I think it would be highly unlikely you will see Jonathan Rayner from London Southend Airport and Tony Hallwood from Leeds Bradford International Airport signing a duet on the X-Factor, but they may be available for Weddings!
The accompanying sporting events proved popular with delegates and were taken very seriously. We had some major crashes in the go-karting and even had to call on a former professional referee in Davie Laws, the Chief Executive Officer at Newcastle International Airport to officiate the football as four teams including airline and airport delegates, Routes, ASM, OAG and UBM Aviation staff and other partners fought for the inaugural Routes Europe cup.
The competiveness had begun early in the day as someone stamped on the foot of Routes’ ‘star’ goalkeeper, Scheduling Manager, Simon Baxendale. This meant that The HUB Editor had to come out of retirement for a guest appearance, over five years since his last match playing for a team of aviation journalists against the senior management team of easyJet following the opening of its Milan Malpensa base (some might say it has taken him that long to recover!!!).
Anyway, it was a fiercely competitive tournament with some crunching tackles (mainly from Routes Airline Director, Paul Winfield), although unlike most referees nowadays Davie Laws refrained from brandishing any yellow or red cards, probably because he didn’t have any! After a goalless game, the final was eventually decided on penalties, by which time the small crowd had selected ASM’s David Bell as the man of the tournament, although I don’t think it was entirely due to his footballing abilities!
Routes Africa – Bamako, Mali
Aéroports du Mali hosted the 6th Routes Africa in Bamako, Mali. Supported by AFRAA, AASA, and ACI Africa, the event brought airlines, airports, tourism leaders, policy leaders, keynote speakers, exhibitors and sponsors from across Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
Over 150 delegates representing over 75 companies attended the event which included; The Routes Africa Strategy Forum, a conference focused on delivering air services in Africa, with key note addresses from Ali Tounsi, ACI Africa’s Secretary General and Dr Elijah Chingosho, Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer, AFRAA; One-to-One Meetings, a FREE Route Development Workshop by ASM (the global route development experts); Route Exchange Airline Briefings by Air France, South African Airways and Arik Air. The latter decided during the event to announce confirmation of a new route from Lagos to Bamako.
BUT, for one member of the Routes team Routes Africa 2011 will be forever remembered for his lost luggage debacle. For poor Neil Mulligan, part of the Routes Airline team, it was fortunate that the event’s opening ceremony took place alongside the pool as he was forced to wear the shorts he had arrived in during the pre-event and opening day following false promises about the location of his bag. To make matters worse, his other checked bag that contained work-related material had arrived at Bamako’s Sénou International Airport, it was only his suitcase of clothes that got ‘lost in transit’. The problem was the airline guaranteed each day that the bag would arrive on the following day’s flight, but contacting the airport it was claimed that it had never arrived. With the belief the bag was lost forever Neil acquired some clothes from the hotel shop.
On the return to Europe Neil questioned the airline and was actually informed that his bag would amazingly be on his connecting flight back to Manchester. A smile finally arrived on his face only to be quickly removed when just a week after waiting at Sénou International Airport for his bag, Neil recreated the moment in the arrivals hall at Manchester International Airport. It actually turns out that Neil was reunited with his bag around two weeks later. Apparently it had arrived at Sénou International Airport on the subsequent day’s flight, only to get mislaid with the towers of left luggage that adorned the arrivals hall.
Routes Africa 2011 will also be remembered by one member of staff for the unusual habits of an African doctor, while another will never ever forget his Yellow Fever certificate again. The event hotel contained portraits of the former Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi and some delegates actually suggested that he was seen in the back row of the ASM workshop on the importance of data, although it was more likely to have simply been a hallucinatory reaction to the anti-Malaria tablets.
World Routes – Berlin, Germany
The 17th World Routes was hosted by the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport and attracted over 2,700 delegates. Key highlights of the event included; over 300 airlines in attendance; four Airline Meeting Halls for One-to-One Meetings; Ministerial Destination Briefings; more than 20 Route Exchange Briefings, Social Media & Traffic Development Briefings; the World Route Development Strategy Summit (a high profile conference supported by ICAO and the World Bank and featuring the Joint Secretary of India’s Ministry of Aviation, Prashant Sukul amongst other speakers); a spectacular Networking Evening at the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, a fantastic tours programme and senior level attendance from over 200 of the world’s airline and airport Chief Executives.
The event also announced a number of future Routes events including; Routes CIS 2012 (Ekaterinburg), Routes Americas 2013 (Cartagena), Routes Asia 2013 (Mumbai) and World Routes 2014 (Chicago).
BUT, ahead of the biggest event of the year plans were thrown into disarray as Gary Defty, Routes’ Graphic Designer had his computer stolen from our Manchester office. Now, for many of us there is a simple solution and we can use a spare machine. However, Gary had a top of the range Mac to support his design work and to make matters worse he was on his deadline to get all the signage for World Routes complete. The problem was fortunately quickly solved by a trip to the Apple store in Manchester and despite losing around a day of work, Gary successfully completed his task to his deadline.
Sometimes problems can be of your own making and in the following story we have to put our hands up and admit we got it wrong. However, sometimes it is how you react under pressure that you show your best abilities. Now, we have to take boxes upon boxes to each event and occasional, despite the best plans, sometimes but very rarely things get left in the Manchester office. Normally, we can easily get around this… but when that item is the Routes trophy that is the showpiece of the handover ceremony from this to next year’s host that is a problem.
Due to the quick thinking of our Operations Manager – Host Liaison Planning, Hilary Shearer a solution was discovered. Berlin Airports had been presented with the same trophy at last year’s World Routes in Vancouver, Canada and member of the team was quickly dispatched to the company’s offices to collect the stand-in trophy. The problem was we only had one and a half hours until the ceremony and it was a 40 minute journey in each direction. Fortunately, there was little traffic on the roads and the trophy was seamlessly handed over by Berlin Brandenburg Airport executives to Abu Dhabi Airports Corporation in front of a large gathering with only a small number of people aware of the afternoon’s exploits. We later discovered that the trophy had been on display in a glass cabinet, the key for which couldn’t be quickly obtained and which had to be smashed open to get it out!
The highlight of the event was most certainly the Networking Evening on the apron of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport and many delegates took the opportunity to take a quick tour of the new terminal building ahead of its opening next year, taking a journey across the apron in a velotaxi having got dressed in hardhats and working boots. There were a number of other entertainment options including a penalty shoot out competition, although due to the inability of some people to hit the target, early customers at Berlin Brandenburg Airport should look out for lost footballs on the apron.
Over two months after the event you only have to mention the word ‘Jaegar bombs’ to one member of Routes staff and you will find him slump in his chair holding his head as he remembers being introduced to the concept by the Australian delegation in Berlin. But, we should leave the last story to our great leader David Stroud, Executive Vice President, UBM Aviation Routes, who kept staff and delegates entertained at the event aftershow party in a Berlin Irish bar with his excellent rendition of U2’s ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’.
All that is left is for Routes team to thank you all in the route development community for supporting our events this year, we hope that each year we will continue to develop and grow together in order to ensure our business is responding directly to the needs of the industry. Happy Holidays!!
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