Auckland Airport wins global marketing award

Auckland Airport wins global airport marketing award

Awards judged by airline industry

Auckland Airport has won another significant global award, having been named the best airport in the Asian region for international marketing at the prestigious World Routes Airport Marketing Awards, held in Vancouver, Canada last night.

Auckland Airport general manager aeronautical business development, Glenn Wedlock, said, “We’re immensely proud to be recognised by the global airline industry for our efforts. In winning this award we also recognise the significant contribution made by the New Zealand tourism industry, to help grow tourism, travel and trade markets.”

Winners of all the 2010 World Routes Airport Marketing Awards were formally announced yesterday. The awards comprised four regional categories; Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Other global winners were Brussels Airport for the European region, Edmonton International Airport for the Americas and Nairobi–Jomo Kenyatta International Airport collected the award for the African region

The World 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 really starting to pay off, with announcements from airlines to introduce new international capacity to Auckland totalling in excess of 850,000 more seats per annum by late 2011,” said Mr Wedlock, “And any success of ours is shared by New Zealand tourism and by the airlines serving New Zealand. International passenger numbers benefit us and exponentially benefit the country, with each international visitor generating around $2,500 for New Zealand tourism”.

Mr Wedlock said, “Our air-service development work is based on developing detailed market information, working through any obstacles, and proving business cases for a range of new and existing airlines. And it’s not just about more 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.”

David Stroud, Senior Vice President of Routes Events and member of the awards judging panel, notes that, “What really sets these awards apart is how accurately they reflect the airlines’ views. Vitally, it is the airlines’ votes that create the shortlist from which the panel selects the winners, and the judging panel itself is made up of airline route development professionals. This aspect in particular is unique within the industry, and what makes the awards so highly regarded.”

Mr Wedlock added, “At Auckland Airport, we are proud of our record of engagement with airlines, and the successes we are achieving for them and for our wider community of stakeholders. This collective market development work will be vitally important for the industry as the key growth markets that are vital to New Zealand’s tourism sector continue to develop”.

ENDS

© Scoop Media