Routes Europe 2015 opened with Strategy Summit on "Changing Skies of Europe". The Summit provided firm evidence on the key role that low-fare carriers continue to play in this part of the world and how the legacy airlines are working to compete with the expanding rivals.
ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND – Routes Europe 2015 closed yesterday in Aberdeen, Scotland. The packed audience at the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre, Scotland, at the hard-hitting Strategy Summit on the first day, followed an engaging and thought-provoking discussion on the changing skies of Europe.
John Grant, executive vice president data and market intelligence for schedules specialist, OAG, set the scene by highlighting that in the last five years Europe has already ‘lost’ over 70 scheduled airlines with numbers declining from 241 in 2011 to 168 in 2015. If that trend were to be extrapolated, there would be no European-based airlines in 25 years.
He also revealed that Turkey’s domestic market is now home to three of the four largest intra-European routes. While Turkey, Poland and Russia have seen fast growth over the past five years, capacity in countries such as Spain and Italy has declined considerably.
The Summit provided firm evidence on the key role that low-fare carriers continue to play in this part of the world and how the legacy airlines are working to compete with the expanding rivals. The region’s big two low-fare carriers, easyJet and Ryanair, will command an estimated 35 per cent share of the intra-Europe market by 2024, up from the current 22 per cent and the legacy airlines are making bold moves to compete and shifting flights and the airlines that are operating them.
Continuing a theme from Routes Americas last February, there was a lively debate on how the Gulf carriers are influencing the market both through acquisitions and growing network capacity. The skies of Europe may be more turbulent ahead, as the new battle lines of competition and cooperation are drawn up.
Against this challenging backdrop, the European Commission is currently drafting a new aviation strategy for Europe, which is expected to come out in late 2015, while Germany is also in the process of drafting a new aviation strategy. Both documents will focus on the competitive situation of the sector and of European airlines in particular. The fact that the UK, Europe’s largest aviation market, does not have an aviation strategy was called a “shambles” by Jochen Schnadt, Managing Director at Latitude Aviation.
Regardless of governments’ strategic considerations, a route down the consolidation path has already started with legacy flag carriers coming together and even low-cost and regional airlines joining together through takeovers and mergers. However, is consolidation the right way to move forward in Europe? Not according to Peter Morris, chief economist at Ascend and other delegates during the afternoon’s second Strategy Summit panel session: “If you wanted to breed a racehorse, you are probably not going to take two dinosaurs to start you breeding programme,” offered Morris as an analogy for the European airline sector.
According to Simon McNamara, director general, European Regions Airlines Association (ERAA), one of the biggest challenges the aviation sector will face in regards to investment decisions is attracting capital, finance and investors due to current restrictions. “Attracting finance to the European industry is very, very difficult,” he said. “We have some quite closed rules in Europe when it comes to foreign investment especially – a limit of 49 per cent by foreign companies in European airlines and no effective control.”
“It is a source of problems for the future attracting that investment to European carriers because there is not a big bunch of people out there wanting to give money to the industry which needs capital, particularly the airline business,” he added.
Commenting on the Strategy Summit, Mike Miller, Routes’ Head of Content and Industry Relations, said: “It’s great to see the defining issues for aviation being debated with enthusiasm at Routes Europe. Europe’s skies are changing fast in more ways than one, from the march of the low-cost carriers to the rise of Turkish and Middle Eastern airlines and the global open skies vs. fair skies debate. The significant interest of airlines and airports in these discussions highlights how crucial these issues are for the aviation industry right now.”
Routes Europe 2015, the leading route development event in Europe, opened on 12 April with 1,200 delegates to discuss where airlines will fly in the future. One of the largest civil aviation events of the year, Routes Europe brings together around 350 airports, 100 airlines and 45 tourism authorities as well as high-level policy-makers and aviation stakeholders to develop new air services to, from and within Europe. All of Europe’s major network and low-cost carriers are in attendance as well as leading global airlines such as Etihad Airways and China Southern.
Brussels Airport Takes Overall Prize at the Routes Europe 2015 Marketing Awards
During the Networking Evening at the historic Castle Fraser in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Brussels Airport was announced as the overall winner of the Europe heat of the 2015 Routes Marketing Awards. Around 1,100 aviation professionals were gathered to witness the presentation of the awards and to take part in this year’s Routes Europe – the leading route development event for the European region.
Commenting on the win, Leon Verhallen, Head of Aviation Marketing, Brussels Airport said: “After winning the top award at World Routes in Chicago last year it is a great enorsement of our strategy that we are here just six months later being recognised in the European market.”
“It has been a strong year for Brussels Airport and the team have worked hard to ensure we are supporting our airline partners, whether small regional carriers, medium-sized operators or long-haul airlines,” he added.
The annual Routes Marketing 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 has provided the best overall marketing services to them in relation to route development and marketing over the past year.
Brussels Airport was also named as the winner in the over 20 million passengers category. In the 4-20 million passengers category Athens International Airport was ranked top. The under 4 million passengers award went to City Airport Bremen for the second consecutive year. Shortlisted for the first time, Innovation Norway won the destination category.
“Brussels Airport really hit it out of the park this year,” commented Katie Bland, Director Routes, UBM EMEA: “Last year Brussels won in the under 20 million passengers category, but they have been so successful in attracting new airlines and growing existing ones that they are now competing in the over 20 million passengers category. With an incredible 15% passenger growth in 2014, they fared better than any other large Western or Central European airport.”
“What impressed the judges was how the team managed to raise the bar in all areas: successful airline marketing, elaborate passenger marketing across borders, improved accessibility and infrastructure, and better services for passengers on site. The result: 14 new destinations since last year,” she added.
Routesonline spoke exclusively to Leon Verhallen alongside the stunning Castle Fraser this evening immediately after Belgium’s largest airport collected the Airport Marketing Award overall winner prize at Routes Europe.
The shortlisted finalists were nominated by airline network planners, before a respected panel of judges made up of senior members of the airline network planning community from the region reviewed the lists and submissions from the nominated airports in order to determine the winners. The panel consisted of the following judges:
- Jonathan Keenan, Commercial Development Manager, British Airways LCY
- Andrew Hodges, Head of Network and Scheduling, easyJet
- David Neill, Head of Planning, Jet2.com
- Rikke Christensen, Head of Network Planning, Finnair.
The awards will be continued throughout the year at all other Routes events, culminating at World Routes in Durban this September. The overall winner of each of Regional Award will be automatically short-listed for the World Routes Awards. Brussels Airport joins Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Tourism Australia, who were recently announced as overall winners of the Americas and Asia heats respectively.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
