Key decision makers from the Basque Country are in Hannover this week to further build on the work started when the region hosted Routes Europe a year ago.
With all eyes on the Basque Country ahead of Routes Europe, the government's minister of tourism Alfredo Retortillo outlines the region's key route development targets and what delegates can expect when they arrive later this month.
At present, Bilbao Airport serves more than four million people a year. The airport directly provides services within Europe, but after hosting Routes Europe in 2018, long-haul services could be on the horizon for the Basque Country.
The airport, famous for its sleek terminal building designed by Spanish neofuturistic architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, Santiago Calatrava Valls, reported a second successive year of year-on-year traffic growth in 2015 and fifth rise in the past six years.
