AIA’s 15th Airline Marketing Workshop “Here We Go Again”

Connectivity held the leading role of the 15th Airline Marketing Workshop, organized by Athens International Airport. This year’s Workshop, held on February 19th, reviewed 2014, a year marked by significant traffic recovery, and dealt with the increase of the Athens network connectivity and the optimistic prospects for traffic development in 2015.

For the last 15 years the annual Airline Marketing Workshop, an internationally acknowledged innovative initiative of Athens International Airport, has evolved into a true institution for the Athens aviation market. Aiming at the exchange of views between the airport and its airline partners, the Workshop serves as an ideal platform for a substantial cooperation among aviation partners in the context of the industry’s many issues and challenges. As every year, the content of the Workshop reflects the Athens International Airport’s philosophy to offer airlines its continuous support and useful tools to assist in their developmental efforts, especially during the continuing adverse economic conditions.

A year of record growth for the Athens aviation market

Key points of the 2014 review were extensively presented during this year’s Workshop: As regards network development, in the previous year Athens connectivity increased significantly, with 8 new airlines, 13 new international destinations and 168 new international weekly services in the summer. Passenger traffic recorded a 21.2% increase, surpassing 2013 levels by 2.7 million: Foreign travellers rose by 29%, while Greek passengers recorded a double-digit increase as well (+22.5%). Following its impressive growth in passenger traffic, flights and seats, Athens airport climbed at the top position among European airports in its category.

Agenda of this year’s Workshop included among others: an experts’ panel discussion on aviation trends and perspectives moderated by Ralph Anker, Chief Analyst of the anna.aero international aviation web portal; AIA’s IT&T Director, George Demetriades, presented airport’s innovations and developments; new trends in the Media world were presented by George Frangakis, Managing Director, Forestview and Jeff Howe, Editor of The Wired Magazine, with a presentation on “Crowd Sourcing”; and, the Director General of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec gave a presentation on global aviation connectivity. In his closing credits, AIA’s CEO, Yiannis Paraschis, highlighted positive perspectives following a year that produced great results and took the chance to thank the airlines for their excellent cooperation and commitment to the Athens market.

In addition, as every year Athens International Airport rewarded the airlines that recorded the fastest growth and drastically increased passenger numbers in their scheduled services. “Connie” (from Connectivity) entertained the 180 attendees and added a special tone of music and dance during this year’s gathering!

The airline awards, as per respective category, were the following:

1. Best of the TOP-10 Airlines Award was awarded to Emirates as the overall fastest growing airline operating at AIA in 2014, while Aegean Airlines and easyJet were highly commended.
2. Fastest Growing Airline - Thin Route Award was awarded to Bulgaria Air for achieving the highest annual passenger growth in 2014, while Air Moldova was highly commended.
3. Fastest Growing Airline - Seasonal Routes Award was awarded to Air Baltic for achieving the highest passenger growth in the summer period of 2014, while Air Canada and US Airways were highly commended.
4. Highest Ranking European Destination was awarded to British Airways for the highest contribution in making London the top European destination out of Athens.
5. Highest Ranking non-European Destination was awarded to Emirates for the highest contribution in making Dubai the top non-European destination out of Athens.
6. Fastest Growing Airline Awards per geographical region (Highest percentage passenger growth, 2013 - 2014) were awarded to Aegean Airlines in the domestic sector, Transavia.com for Western Europe (with Vueling and Pegasus Airlines highly commended), Air Serbia for Eastern Europe (with Aegean Airlines and Aeroflot highly commended), Aegean Airlines for the Middle East (with Etihad Airways and El Al Israel Airlines also highly commended) and Egypt Air for the Africa region.
7. Best New Entrant Performance was awarded to Ukraine International Airlines for recording the highest passenger traffic numbers among all newcomers that launched scheduled operations in 2013 and Aegean Airlines for presenting the highest passenger volumes increase at Athens International Airport in 2014, with Transavia.com also highly commended in this category.

Special awards were also awarded to Aegean Airlines as the favourite airline for 2014 among European passengers using Athens airport and Emirates as the favourite airline for the same year among non-European passengers using Athens airport. Both results were according to AIA’s official annual survey.

On the occasion of AIA’s 15th Airline Marketing Workshop, Ioanna Papadopoulou, Director, Communications & Marketing, pointed: “It was our great pleasure to welcome our airline partners to our Airline Marketing Workshop for one more year; this annual meeting has now become an institution in the aviation market and resonates our philosophy as we move ahead on a mutually beneficial common course. Once more, we would like to thank our airline partners and reconfirm our commitment to keep supporting them in the same spirit of substantial collaboration.”