PRESS RELEASE: Aviation leaders unite in Chiang Mai to drive recovery for the Asia Pacific region

As the recovery of Asia Pacific's aviation industry continues to gather pace, Routes Asia 2023 will bring together decision makers from the region’s leading airlines, airports, destinations and industry suppliers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this week from 14-16 February. Serving as Asia Pacific’s only forum dedicated to driving the region’s air service growth, the event will play a significant role in cementing the upwards trajectory already seen across Asia Pacific’s aviation recovery.

The 19th edition of Routes Asia will welcome VPs and Heads of Network Planning from more than 100 of the region’s leading carriers. Over 1,500 meetings will take place at the event between these airline stakeholders and new or existing airport and destination partners. These meetings will go on to generate future air route networks across regional and global skies.

Airline decision makers attending the event include:

• SVP Network Planning, Turkish Airlines
• Head of Commercial, Thai Lion Air
• Head of Networking and Scheduling, AirAsia Group
• Director of Corporate Planning Division, Bamboo Airways
• Chief Planning, Batik Air Indonesia
• Network Management Manager, Cebu Air Pacific
• Vice President – International, Go First Air
• Chief Commercial Officer, MYAirline
• Vice President Network Planning, IndiGo
• Manager Network Planning, Lufthansa Group
• Director of Commercial Strategy Department, Jeju Air
• Vice President Network Management, Royal Brunei Airlines
• Head of Network, Schedule & Alliances, Jetstar Group
• Chief Commercial Director, MIAT Mongolian Airlines
• Senior Commercial Manager, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi
• Chief Commercial Officer, Myanmar Airways
• Chief Executive Officer, Thai VietJet
• SVP Network Planning and Alliances, Oman Air
• Vice President of Network Planning, Philippine Airlines
• Manager Network Planning, Qantas
• Director of Strategy, Commercial Strategy, Planning and International, VietJet Air
• Chief Financial Officer, Thai AirAsia X
• Director Network Planning and Business Development, Thai International Airways

The Routes Asia meetings platform will also offer virtual meeting opportunities, enabling airport and tourism delegates to also take meetings with 13 of China’s leading carriers which, due to travel restrictions, will take part virtually in meetings hosted during the event in Chiang Mai. Virtual meetings will be available with Chinese carriers including Air China, China Eastern, China Southern Airlines, and more.

Routes Asia 2023 will also feature a conference programme with over 40 speakers from trade associations, airline boards of directors, airports and government ministries, who will deliver more than 15 hours of actionable insight for delegates across the three days of the event. Sponsored by Boeing, the conference programme will address a range of topics, predominantly focusing on the reopening of Asia Pacific.

Attendees will hear exclusively from:

• Woranate Laprabang, Chief Executive Officer, Thai Vietjet
• Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President, Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited
• Sarun Benjanirat, Deputy Director, The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand
• Tao Ma, Regional Director of Asia Pacific, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
• Stefano Baronci, Director General, Airports Council International Asia-Pacific (ACI)
• Subhas Menon, Director General, Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA)
• Senthil Balan, Chief Commercial Officer, MYAirline
• Aaron McGarvey, Director Business Development, Finnair
• Jay L Lingeswara, Director Commercial, VietJet Air
• Thiti Arayakhun, Director Network Planning and Business Development, Thai Smile Airways
• Dinh Xuan Thuy, Director of Corporate Planning Division, Bamboo Airways
• Neil Hathi, Marketing Regional Director for Southeast Asia, Boeing
• Ignacio Bosch Nacenta, Head of Networking and Scheduling, AirAsia Group
• Pinyot Pibulsonggram, Head of Commercial, Thai Vietjet
• Krislen Keri, Senior Commercial Manager, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi
• Anthony Chan, Head of Network Planning, HK Express

Steven Small, Director of Routes, said “Asia-Pacific carriers enjoyed a strong and welcome international travel recovery in 2022. The picture for Asia-Pacific’s airlines, airports and destinations is one of real optimism heading into 2023. Routes Asia 2023 comes at the ideal time for the route development community to negotiate new and existing air services that will continue to build on this momentum.”