San Diego International Airport Wins Americas Airport Marketing Award

Last night during a spectacular networking evening at the Plaza de la Proclamacion in Cartagena’s beautiful Old Town, San Diego International Airport was announced as the winner of the first heat of this year’s Routes Airport Marketing Awards. Over 400 aviation professionals were gathered to witness the presentation of the awards and to take part in the 6th Routes Americas – the largest route development event for the entire Americas.

The airport was reconised for providing an excellent submission which detailed a straight forward approach to air service development and illustrated the partnership with its airlines, according to the panel of judges,which this year included two airline representatives - John Kirby from Southwest Ailrines and Ben Munson from Alaska Airlines.

After being presented with the award by Nigel Mayes VP & Commercial, Routes and Sallyanne Collins, Sales Director Airports, Routes, Hampton Brown, Director Air Service Development, San Diego International Airport said: "We areabsolutely delighted to pick up the overall winner award in the Americas heatof the prestigious Routes Airport Marketing Awards. We thank our airline partners for the investments they have made in our community."

The Routes Airport Marketing Awards have become synonymous with recognising and rewarding the highest standards of marketing activities undertaken by airports. The 2013 awards will see a number of innovations. Routes are taking a blended approach meaning the final nominees will include a number of airports who will be shortlisted using our online voting form together with a number of airports who have been selected by a panel of industry experts drawn from the airline network planning community.

This year the awards were split into three categories based on the size of the airport and also a new tourism award for best destination marketing campaign by a tourism authority. As overall winner of this regional heat of the Routes Marketing Awards San Diego will be automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Airport Marketing Awards which will take place at the event in Las Vegas, 5th – 8th October 2013.

San Diego were also named as the winner from the 4-20 million passengers category with George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston honoured from the over 20 million passengers category. From the under 4 million passengers category Queen Beatrix International Airport, Aruba were ranked top and the Tourism Award went to Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Nigel Mayes said: “We would like to congratulate all of the winners and highly commended airports and tourism authorities in this first regional heat of the 2013 awards. San Diego provided an excellent submission which detailed a straight forward approach to air service development. We would also like to thank our judges, who are all senior members of the airline network planning community.”

The full list of companies shortlisted under each award category were as follows:

Over 20 Million Passengers
George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston - Winner
Dallas Fort/Worth International Airport – Highly Commended
El Dorado International Airport, Bogota
San Francisco International Airport
Toronto Pearson International Airport

4 – 20 Million Passengers
San Diego International Airport – Winner & Overall Winner
South West Florida International Airport – Highly Commended
Tampa International Airport – Highly Commended
Arturo Merino Benitez International, Santiago
Tocumen International Airport, Panama

Under 4 Million Passengers
Queen Beatrix International Airport, Aruba - Winner
Lynden Pindling International Airport, Nassau – Highly Commended
Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, Cuzco
Hewanorra International Airport, St Lucia
Owen Roberts International Airport, Grand Cayman

Shortlisted Destinations
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau - Winner
Mexico Tourism Board – Highly Commended
Aruba Tourism Authority
Guatemala Tourism Board - INGUAT
Peru Tourism Bureau
Ministry of Tourism Trinidad & Tobago