GENERAL: AIA: Auckland Airport - Routes Marketing Award

20 Apr 2010 4:45 pm

AIA 20/04/2010 GENERAL

REL: 1645 HRS Auckland International Airport Limited

GENERAL: AIA: Auckland Airport - Routes Marketing Award

Media Release

20 April 2010

Auckland Airport wins prestigious airport marketing awards

Auckland Airport has beaten strong competition to be named the best airport in Asia for international marketing, at the prestigious Routes Asia Airport Marketing Awards, held in Adelaide, Australia last night.

Auckland won the Oceania category, and went on to win the overall Asia regional award ahead of the other category winners from South-East Asia (Singapore Changi), India (Hyderabad), Middle East (King Fahd International) and China/North- East Asia (Seoul Incheon). The awards mean that Auckland Airport has been automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Awards which will be held in Vancouver in September.

The awards, voted on by airlines, recognise airports whose marketing efforts have made a real impact on future airline network development plans.

Auckland Airport general manager aeronautical business development, Glenn Wedlock, said "We're pleased that the efforts of the collective New Zealand industry in seeking to develop more effective air services programmes and sustainable markets for growth has been recognised by the airlines. As New Zealand's primary tourism and travel hub, airlines are essential partners in our business, and we share with them and with other key industry partners a mutual goal in growing New Zealand's major export industry, tourism."

"Auckland Airport made a conscious decision 18 months ago to invest in building up a stronger capability for air services development, and in the past 12 months we have launched three new services on the Tasman, and two new main truck routes in the domestic market, adding around 413,000 seats annually", said Mr Wedlock, "Our business development team has made significant progress establishing Auckland Airport as a preferred destination, aligning our initiatives with the needs of airlines, and ensuring that we create value for them".

Mr Wedlock said, "Air services are of critical importance to the New Zealand economy, especially in the areas of trade and tourism. Auckland Airport is working hard with airlines and industry partners to deliver value to New Zealand tourism through our understanding of air service development and our strong relationships with the airlines that fly, or potentially will fly, to New Zealand. By proactively working with airlines on their marketing, we can help raise the "mindshare" for New Zealand and grow tourism traffic."

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 markets that are vital to New Zealand's tourism sector continue to emerge from the global downturn".

Ends

For further information, please contact:

Richard Llewellyn Senior communications manager +64 9 255 9089 +64 27 477 6120 End CA:00193943 For:AIA Type:GENERAL Time:2010-04-20:16:45:57

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