Successful Routes CIS Event Draws to a Close

Manchester, England (ots/PRNewswire) -

The second Routes CIS event drew to a close today in
Ekaterinburg, Russia. The event opened on Sunday with the inaugural
Routes CIS Strategy Forum during which, a number of leading industry
experts covered some of the hot topics affecting aviation in the CIS
region. The conclusion of most of the speakers during this
thought-provoking debate was that barriers need to be brought down to
enhance inbound and outbound traffic, especially in relation to
prohibitive bilateral restrictions and visa issues.

The forum opened with an address from Evgeniy Chudnovskiy, CEO
of, the event host, Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport, highlighting
"there is still a lot to be done" to enable the Russian aviation
business to meet its full potential and that the regional market "is
key to the development" of the overall industry. Earlier this year
Chudnovskiy had spoken of the opportunity to host this event stating
that "it is a great privilege and a variety of opportunities for us.
To have Routes CIS hosted in Ekaterinburg is a perfect opportunity
for us to give an insight into our plans and achievements to our
colleagues, to share our expertise in introduction of new
technologies, related to airport operation in particular, to find new
partners, and to enhance the route network for our passengers."

Also revealed, during the successful event was a new alliance of
Russian Airports as four of the country's six largest facilities by
passenger traffic united to lobby for advancements in the industry.
The non-commercial entity will be known as the Russian International
Airport Association and plans to become part of the Airports Council
International (ACI). This innovative alliance brings together three
major airport groups (Basel Aero, Novaport and Renova) initially
comprising of four major Russian Airports; Sheremetyevo
International, Vnukovo International, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo and
Ekaterinburg Koltsovo.

Another important element of the event, The Routes Airport
Marketing Awards, took place during the spectacular networking
evening which took place last night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Ekaterinburg. This is the first time that the Marketing Awards have
involved a regional heat for the CIS and St Petersburg Pulkovo
International Airport was crowned as the winner of this year's fourth
regional heat.

The Awards have become synonymous with recognising and rewarding
the highest standards of marketing activities undertaken by airports
working on the core principle that the people who are best placed to
judge an airport's marketing activities are the airlines.

Pulkovo International Airport, demonstrated a clear route
development strategy and implementation process in their awards
submission and illustrated how they have worked clearly with their
airline customers. Winning this regional heat now enables them to be
automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Awards due to be held
in Abu Dhabi later this year. Highly commended during the ceremony
was Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo Airport which has achieved 28 per cent
growth in passenger traffic in 2011 over 2010, with traffic reaching
1.6 million passengers.

Speaking just after receiving the award, Evgeniy Ilyin,
Commercial Director, Northern Capital Gateway, the operators of
Pulkovo International Airport, said: "I am absolutely delighted to
come up to collect this prestigious award at what is a celebratory
time at the airport. In the last couple of days we celebrated the
80th anniversary of Pulkovo International and being presented with
the Routes Airport Marketing Award for the CIS region shows just how
far we have come in that period. The arrival of seven new operators
in the past calendar year shows we are doing something right and to
secure the direct link to Dubai International with Emirates Airline
was a major endorsement on our business arrangements."

Almost 250 (243) registered delegates were in attendance at
Routes CIS in Ekaterinburg including 41 airline delegates
representing over 19 airlines and 57 airport delegates representing
over 33 airports.

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 were acquired by UBM Aviation Worldwide Ltd in
August 2010. Routes is a UBM Aviation brand. UBM Aviation specialises
in the supply of data and information products, market intelligence,
news and events related to the global aviation industry. More
information can be found at http://www.ubmaviation.com

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ots Originaltext: UBM Aviation Routes Ltd
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Contact:
For further press information please contact: Victoria Jones, PR
Executive, UBM Aviation Routes Limited, T: +44(0)161-234-2730, E:
pr@routesonline.com