Aaron Heslehurst, News Anchor and Presenter for BBC World Television, who chaired the Summit and Shruti Vijayakumar, Air Transport Specialist at The World Bank have produced a conference white paper reporting the findings of the World Routes Strategy Summit 2013 which took place from 6-7 October in Las Vegas, Nevada, alongside the 19th World Route Development Forum.
The Summit, which was held in partnership with ICAO and The World Bank and sponsored by Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC), brought together senior leaders and key stakeholders from aviation, tourism and cargo to participate in discussions that will set the commercial and political agenda for the industry. The event attracted airline and airport CEOs, Ministers of Tourism and leaders of industry associations worldwide.
Dr. Charles E. Schlumberger, Lead Air Transport Specialist at The World Bank Group who moderated the panel discussion entitled A Sustainable Future for Aviation said, “The World Routes Strategy Summit is the annual ‘D Check’ or ‘Heavy Maintenance Visit’ of the air transport industry. During two days each year, top airline and airport executives, aviation authorities, and officials of international organisations gather during the World Routes Forum to discuss, dismantle, and analyse every part of our fascinating air transport system. Their insight and conclusions are outlined in a White Paper, which can be seen as health bill of the industry!”
“The World Routes Strategy Summit is the only forum where senior executives from airlines, airports, tourism authorities and governments gather to discuss the issues and thrash out the solutions facing the aviation and tourism industry. We had over 1,000 executives play their part in this year’s conference making it our largest summit ever,” added Nigel Mayes, Commercial & Relationships Director for Routes, UBM Live.
The report details the conclusions from each of the sessions which took place over the two day event which covered many aspects of the industry. Points raised include the fact that collaboration across the airline, airport and tourism sectors is key to adapting to a challenging market environment whilst governments also play a key role to success. This was the finding from The Golden Triangle – Airports, Airlines and Tourism session and speakers during this insightful session also raised the need to improve connectivity across the US to promote domestic travel to international visitors.
The Addressing CO2 Emissions session found that the decision which was made at the 38th ICAO assembly to commit the organisation’s 198 member states to develop a global market-based mechanism (MBM) to address international aviation emissions by 2016 was hailed by the EU but viewed by others as a missed opportunity. The session found that the industry remains committed to carbon neutral growth whilst highlighting the need for the industry to remain involved. The State of the Industry session saw panellists emphasising that whilst the industry remains fragile growing collaboration with stakeholders is a positive sign for the future and that there is a need to open the lines of communication with passengers to improve service particularly in view of the expected growth in demand for air transport in the rising middle classes and emerging markets.
