Routes Asia 2014 Awards Winners Announced

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MANCHESTER, England, Mar. 12, /PRN=KYODO JBN/ --

- Abu Dhabi International Airport crowned overall winner in Kuching

Earlier this week Abu Dhabi International Airport was announced as the winner

of the Asia heat of this year's Routes Marketing Awards. The awards ceremony

took place during the Routes Asia Networking Evening hosted by the Ministry of

Tourism, Sarawak at the Pullman Kuching Hotel and over 700 aviation

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

take part in the 12th Routes Asia - the largest route development event for the

entire Asia region.

The event was also attended by Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin

Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Sarawak's Minister for Tourism who presented Abu

Dhabi International Airport with their award. Commenting on winning the award,

Tony Douglas, CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: "It is a great honour to receive

the Routes Marketing Award for Asia. This accolade only adds to the growing

significance of Abu Dhabi International Airport as a state-of-the-art growing

transportation hub in the Asian region. The award is a result of the commitment

of our airport team and airline partners in providing our passengers with the

highest levels of services. It also motivates us to continue developing and

enhancing our facilities and products to ensure we provide a unique travel

experience to all segments of passengers whether arriving, departing or

transiting through Abu Dhabi International Airport."

The annual Routes 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

as to which airport or tourism authority they think provides the best overall

marketing services to them whether this relates to their particular

relationship, effective results, provision of data and information or

innovative techniques to establish new or maintain and develop existing routes.

"We are delighted to announce Abu Dhabi as the winner of this regional heat of

our awards and would like to congratulate them and all of our winners,"

commented Katie Bland, Director Routes, UBM Live continuing: "In the past 12

months Abu Dhabi has achieved some great results. The airport recorded double

digit growth for the fourth year in a row, at 12%, in 2013 and welcomed six new

carriers with 49 additional weekly flights operated by foreign airlines."

Abu Dhabi were also named as the winner from the 4-20 million passengers

category with Changi Airport Group ranked top from the over 20 million

passengers category. From the under 4 million passengers category Darwin

International Airport were honoured and the Destination Award went to Tourism

Australia.

As overall winner of this regional heat, Abu Dhabi International Airport will

be automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Marketing Awards which will

take place at the event in Chicago, 20-23 September 2014. Abu Dhabi joins Tampa

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

heat last month in San Salvador.

The shortlisted finalists were nominated by airlines and a respected panel of

judges made up of senior members of the airline network planning community from

the region then reviewed the lists and submissions from the nominated airports

in order to determine the winners.  The panel consisted of the following

experts:

Venggatarao Niadu, Head of Network, Air Asia

Genen NISHIMURA, International & Domestic Network Planning, Managing Division,

Route Marketing, Japan Airlines

Eric Nabong, Manager - Business Planning, Philippine Airlines

Trevor Spinks, Head of Planning & revenue Management, Scoot

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

follows:

Over 20 Million Passengers

Changi Airport Group - Winner

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - Highly Commended

Kunming Changshui International Airport - Highly Commended

Melbourne International Airport

4 - 20 Million Passengers

Abu Dhabi International Airport - Winner

Christchurch International Airport - Highly Commended

Bangalore International Airport

Nanning Wuxu International Airport

Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport

Under 4 MillionPassengers

Darwin International Airport - Winner

Cambodia Airports - Sihanoukville International Airport - Highly Commended

Clark International Airport

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport

Destination Marketing Award

Tourism Australia - Winner

Philippine Department of Tourism - Highly Commended

Singapore Tourism Board

Tourism Malaysia

Tourism New Zealand

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 are 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

About UBM plc

- UBM plc is a global events-led marketing services and communications

company.  We help businesses do business, bringing the world's buyers and

sellers together at events and online, as well as producing and distributing

news and specialist content.  Our 5,500 staff in more than 30 countries are

organised into expert teams which serve commercial and professional

communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively

and efficiently.

- For more information, go to http://www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at

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Source: UBM Live Routes Ltd