Following the success of the inaugural Routes Silk Road event which took place in July of last year, the 2015 event, will once again take place in Tbilisi hosted by United Airports of Georgia (UAG) under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.
Routes Silk Road is the route development forum that connects CIS, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia and will offer attendees the perfect platform to do business and improve air transport networks to, from and within the region. Over 300 senior level executives from airlines, airports, tourism authorities and other aviation stakeholders are expected to attend the event, which will once again take place in the beautiful and historic capital of Georgia, to discuss air service development.
The decision by United Airports of Georgia to host the event for the second year running is largely due to the success of the 2014 event and a number of key routes which they negotiated during Routes Silk Road 2014. Air Arabia and Aeroflot commenced new routes from Tbilisi International Airport in October 2014 (to Sharjah and Moscow respectively). Etihad Airways is due to begin flights from Tbilisi to Abu Dhabi in October 2015. Furthermore, UAG is currently in the process of active negotiations with two airlines to begin routes from Kutaisi International Airport.
Hosting Routes Silk Road in 2014 allowed UAG to showcase Georgia as a destination and the interest shown by airlines and the new routes already secured have proved that there is still huge potential for the Georgian aviation market. The media coverage gleaned from the inaugural event placed Georgia at the centre of the aviation industry’s attention and spread throughout the country and the Caucasus region.
UAG, as an Airport Authority of the state, also operates Kutaisi International Airport which opened in 2012 and is the region’s first low cost airport. It is mostly focussed on attracting low cost carriers to facilitate tourism development in Georgia and Routes Silk Road 2015 promises to help its Hosts, UAG, develop more new routes for Kutaisi International Airport as well for Tbilisi and Batumi airports and further promote Georgia to the wider aviation community.
Georgian airports have experienced a robust 17% compound average growth rate (CAGR) for the past 8 years, with annual increases of between 9% and 25%, traffic in 2014 was nearly four times the volume achieved in 2005.
For more information and to register for Routes Silk Road 2015 click here.
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