Under the tagline ‘Istanbul is the new cool’, record numbers of delegates descended upon Türkiye’s mega-city to speed-date at the world’s great annual airline-airport networking event: Routes World. Mark Pilling and Mike Miller report
The two emotions felt by all delegates about Routes World in Istanbul were intensity and awe. For the majority who arrived at the city’s mammoth Istanbul Grand Airport, the sight of its enormous single terminal took the breath away – as did a walk through its vast expanse.
And, as one of Europe’s largest metropolitan areas with a population of 15 million souls, Istanbul’s stellar rise as a travel and tourism destination was evident for all to see, not least in its intense, bustling city streets and associated traffic congestion.
Opening the show, Steven Small, Routes World Director, revealed that the 2023 event, the 28th edition, was the biggest yet with 3,200 registered delegates, 600 airlines taking part, and over 13,000 meetings scheduled.
The large exhibition hall, housing scores of lavish stands, brought every corner of the globe to visitors. While delegates from 115 countries were present at Routes, the most significant was the return of Chinese airports now that travel restrictions in China have been lifted. They returned in force, with 12 airport groups and their customarily beautifully decorated stands.
Keynote speaker at the Routes conference, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Government of Türkiye, explained how the state has focused on and supported air transport to help transform the economic fortunes of the country, which is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Türkiye this year.
“Air transport is the biggest engine of economic development for our country,” he said.
With an open-door policy towards international airlines and investment in both airport infrastructure and flag carrier Turkish Airlines, in addition to promoting the expansion of low-cost carriers like Pegasus, Türkiye has gone from serving 60 destinations in 50 countries in 2002 to serving 343 in 130 countries today, explained Uraloğlu.
At the same time the number of countries with which Türkiye has an air service agreement has risen to 173.
Cool Istanbul
Speaking on the ‘Istanbul is the new cool’ panel, moderated by ARGS Editor Mark Pilling, Elif Balcı Fisunoğlu, Acting General Manager and Vice General Manager of the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, said Istanbul, with its “unique location spanning two continents, Asia and Europe”, offers an “unparalleled travel experience”.
She explained that since 2018 tourism has been a sector of strategic importance for the government of Türkiye, bringing with it support from many ministries and institutions in addition to high-level appearances at events by senior leaders. “This really makes a difference,” said Fisunoğlu.
Unstoppable iGA
Routes World host Istanbul Airport (iGA), which has been among Europe’s fastest-rebounding airports since the end of the pandemic, is determined to maintain its dynamic progress, according to Selahattin Bilgen, Acting Chief Executive of iGA. It will soon be welcoming 100 airlines and exceed 350 destinations served, he said.
In iGA’s first phase of development, which began when it opened in April 2019, it has three primary runways and a capacity of 90 million passengers, explained Bilgen. It will handle 77 million passengers this year and the investment to begin the second development phase has begun. This will add another runway and space to handle a total of 120 million passengers.
The final and fourth phase will expand iGA to a monumental capacity of 200 million passengers and six runways, said Bilgen.
In terms of network development, iGA wants to attract more direct transatlantic service from North American carriers and while it is dominated by Turkish Airlines, there is a desire to bring in more players to fill the airport’s huge available capacity.
“You cannot feed a 200 million-passenger airport with one single airline,” said Bilgen. “Our strategy is to grow with newcomers, and this includes LCCs.” Three LCCs have started at iGA in 2023, he said.
However, Bilgen noted the airport will proceed carefully “because it should not distort or cannibalise the market for our existing carriers”.
Market outlook
Addressing delegates in his keynote presentation, Olivier Jankovec, Director General, ACI Europe, outlined several “downside traffic risks” including the continent’s cost of living crisis, aircraft delivery delays, rising oil prices and external shocks (see related story on page 36).
Despite this, he noted that 48% of Europe’s airports have achieved pre-pandemic traffic levels and that ACI Europe has upgraded its forecast for the region’s full recovery from 2025 to 2024.
Jankovec sounded a warning that because of structural cost increases in areas like insurance, energy and supplies, which are “unsustainable for European airports”, airport charges will need to increase.
As Routes 2023 ended, the baton for the next event, Routes number 29, was handed over by iGA to the 2024 host: Bahrain International Airport. The 2024 event will take place on 6-8 October.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, H E Zayed Alzayani, Chairman of Gulf Air Group Holding, said: “The conference will support the objectives of the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030, with an aim to position the Kingdom as a global, competitive and sustainable economic hub.”
By every conceivable measure, Routes 2023 was a triumphant return to form of this iconic aviation networking event. It demonstrated that network planning, despite major global disruptions like economic woes, wars and scarcity of aircraft, is in full swing.
