17 April 2012
Auckland Airport recognised in 2012 global airport marketing awards
Awards judged by airline industry
Auckland Airport was overnight recognised with another significant global award, having been Highly Commended in the Asian region for international marketing at the prestigious Routes Airport Marketing Awards, held in Chengdu, China last night.
Auckland Airport’s general manager aeronautical business development, Glenn Wedlock, said, “We’re always proud to be recognised by the global airline industry for our efforts. We are committed to leading commercially driven strategies to develop markets that will benefit the industry. We know it is not just about opening new routes; it’s about building networks, connections and value. In being recognised in these awards we also recognise the critical partnership we have with the rest of the New Zealand tourism industry, to help grow tourism, travel and trade markets.”
Auckland Airport was Highly Commended by the judges for demonstrating a clear and simple route development strategy and the “most polished” submission of all airports. “Its campaign to develop capacity from China is an example of a perfect air service development campaign and illustrates how innovative airport marketing can be,” explained Nigel Mayes, Vice President and Commercial Director, UBM Aviation, Routes.
Darwin International Airport won the Routes Airport Marketing Award at the ceremony, demonstrating that size and scale is no impediment to route development success.
The Routes Airport Marketing Awards are widely recognised as one of the industry’s most important honours. They are internationally accredited and widely accepted as one of the most sought after accolades in the industry. The prestige of this award is largely due to the fact that they are the only award based purely on rewarding excellence in route development and nominated only by airlines.
”Our significant investment in air services development is paying off, with a major increase in air-service capacity and a much higher degree of connectivity to the key trade and tourism markets of Asia,” said Mr Wedlock. “Any success of ours is shared by New Zealand and by the airlines serving New Zealand. Increasing international passenger numbers benefits us and exponentially benefits the country, feeding into the domestic travel industry and contributing enormously to the visitor economy.”
Mr Wedlock said, “Our air-service development work is based on thinking like an airline; developing detailed market information, working through obstacles, and proving business cases. And it’s not just about more seats, it’s about the value of those seats. We invest promotional funds alongside the airlines and industry, and build partnerships with the travel trade in the key growth markets to help build demand for any new capacity put on by the airlines. It’s a very competitive industry globally, and New Zealand has to put its best foot forward in order to get its share of the market action.”
For further information, please contact:
Richard Llewellyn