Aberdeen International Airport (AIA) bosses are touting for business at Europe’s largest route development networking event.
AIA managing director Carol Benzie and route development manager Lynn Harwood are at the Routes Europe 2016 event in Krakow, Poland, hoping to persuade some of the 100 airlines represented at the gathering to launch new flights to and from the north-east.
They arrived in Poland’s second largest city, after Warsaw, armed with findings from a survey – carried out in conjunction with Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce – showing where people would like to fly to from the Granite City.
Ms Benzie said: “The results of this data collection has indicated that the top five most requested routes which are currently either not served or under-served from our region include Barcelona, Vilnius, Alicante, Malaga and Faro.
“We are sharing all of this information with potential leisure operators, with a view to gaining some traction on increasing our leisure offering from Aberdeen.
“In addition, we have meetings with our existing airline partners to talk through all of the positive things happening in the north-east at the moment – investments in the AWPR (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route), the new exhibition centre, new hotels and our £20million airport redevelopment.”
AIA’s bid to tempt airlines to add new services from the Dyce terminal coincides with holiday operator Thomson starting up its new summer flights to Gran Canaria.
The first plane bound for sunny Las Palmas took off from a chilly Aberdeen yesterday morning, with a full complement of passengers – about 200 people – on board.
Ms Benzie said some of the recent destination survey findings were a surprise, with Vilnius in Lithuania and Malta, for example, proving a popular choice for people wanting to more leisure travel options.
Interest in Turkey and Tunisia has waned “for obvious reasons” in the wake of terror attacks in these countries, she added.
Routes Europe 2016, which started on Sunday and runs until today, brings together airlines, airports and tourism authorities, as well as more than 1,000 aviation professionals from around the world.
AIA’s bosses are highlighting an estimated 280,000 “unserved or underserved” seats currently in demand in the north-east for new European leisure destinations.
“It’s a fiercely competitive market,” Ms Benzie said, adding the airport was targeting those airlines which either already have or will soon have the right size of aeroplanes for Aberdeen.
