Routes CIS Awards Winners Announced!

AsiaNet 53777

DONETSK, Ukraine, July 23, /PRN=KYODO JBN/ --

- Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport crowned overall winner in final regional heat

of 2013

Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport was announced as the overall winner of the third

heat of this year's Routes Awards last night at a spectacular networking

evening which took place in the grounds of the Donbass Arena, Donetsk hosted by

International Airport Donetsk Sergey Prokofiev. Almost 300 aviation

professionals were gathered to witness the presentation of the awards and to

take part in the 3rd Routes CIS - the only route development event for the

entire CIS region.

The Russian airport, host of last year's Routes CIS forum, was recognised for

its strong passenger growth in 2012 and a submission that clearly illustrated

how they worked closely with their partner carriers on the introduction of new

services.  During the last calendar year the airport attracted a plethora of

operators including Aegean Airlines, Alitalia, Ukraine International Airlines,

Azerbaijan Airlines, Orenburg Airlines and lesser known carrier such as Air

Bishkek, East Air, Severstal and Kogalymavia.

"Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport has delivered true route development results

over the past year," said Nigel Mayes, VP Commercial - Routes, UBM Live, during

his awards presentation.  "The airport achieved a passenger growth of 13 per

cent in 2012 and the judges felt that with their working relationship with all

of their partners that they were worthy as overall winner from the CIS region."

The award was collected by Andrey Klimenko, Deputy Commercial Director of

Koltsovo Airport's parent group, Airports of Regions, and Ilona Fominykh, Head

of Marketing at the company.  "This is just awesome," said a clearly delighted

but shocked Fominykh after discovering the results.  "I can't put into words

just how excited I feel that we have been recognised for this prestigious

award.  It was quite a surprise for us, but a great one."

"I would like to thank all the airlines that voted for us.  This is a clear

sign of appreciation for the efforts our whole team has put into our airline

relations and air service development and shows that what we are trying to

achieve at Ekaterinburg and now also at the other airports under the Airports

of Regions banner, is a successful formula," she added.

The Routes Awards recognise and reward the highest standards of marketing

activities undertaken by airports and tourism authorities.  The 2013 awards

will see a number of innovations including taking a blended approach to the

nomination process, meaning the final nominees those who were shortlisted by

airlines using Routes' online voting form together with a number of airports

who were selected by a panel of industry experts drawn from the airline network

planning community.  This year the awards were split into two categories based

on the size of the airport.

Alongside the overall award, Ekaterinburg were also named as the winner from

the 'Under 4 Million Passengers' category with Pulkovo Saint Petersburg Airport

ranked top from the 'Over 4 Million Passengers' category. Tbilisi International

Airport and Kyiv - Boryspil International Airport were also highly commended by

the panel of airline judges who studied this year's entries.  These included

Tony Whitby, Director of Planning, Air Arabia; Ignacio Bosch, Network Planning

Analyst, Vueling and Angelika Perepelova, Deputy Head of Network Development,

Rossiya Airlines.  

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

Over 4 Million Passengers

Pulkovo Saint Petersburg Airport - Winner

Kyiv - Boryspil International Airport - Highly Commended

Domodedovo International Airport

Sheremetyevo International Airport

Vnukovo International Airport

Under 4 Million Passengers

Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport - Winner & Overall Winner

Tbilisi International Airport - Highly Commended

Almaty International Airport

Astana International Airport

Karagandy International Airport

As overall winner of this regional heat, Ekaterinburg will be automatically

shortlisted for the World Routes Airport Marketing Awards which will take place

at the event in Las Vegas, 5-8 October 2013.  Ekaterinburg join San Diego

International Airport, Changi Airport Group, Munich Airport and Kilimanjaro

International Airport who were announced as overall winners of the Americas,

Asia, Europe and Africa heats respectively, earlier in the year.

Notes to Editors

About Routes

Routes organises world-renowned airline and airport networking events through

its regional and global Route Development Forums. Each year, there is one

global event and one regional event in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and

CIS respectively. http://www.routesonline.com

Routes was founded in 1995 as part of the Manchester UK-based ASM Ltd., a

consultancy specialising in the field of route development for airports.

http://www.asm‐;global.com

Routes and ASM were acquired by UBM Aviation Worldwide Ltd in August 2010.  

From 1st August 2012 Routes, ASM and the Airport Cities Conference and

Exhibition become part of the UBM Live division of UBM plc.

UBM Live connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five

continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products,

promote their brands and expand their markets.  Through premiere brands such as

MD&M, CPhI, IFSEC, TFM&A, Cruise Shipping Miami, the Concrete Show, the Routes

portfolio of events, Airport Cities and many others, UBM Live exhibitions,

conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and

certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies

across more than 20 industry sectors. http://www.ubmlive.com

Follow us on twitter: @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @VictoriaRoutes, @NLPROU,

@airlineroute

Source: UBM Live Routes Ltd