UK indie rock band Athlete released a song back in March 2003 titled El Salvador, which included the lyrics “Fly to El Salvador. I don't know why and I don't know what for,” in its chorus. Well, over ten years later after last month’s successful Routes Americas we now know what for... to discuss network development opportunities. Preliminary figures suggest it was a record Routes Americas in terms of delegates and it was certainly the first event that an airline boss arrived by helicopter which remained parked outside the conference venue during his time at the event.

It is too early to say what impact the three days of networking in San Salvador will have, but if a conservative one per cent of the 1,100 pre-scheduled meetings results in new services, that will bring more than ten new route pairs and a significant boost to origin and destination economies (with meetings arranged through the Extra Meetings System at the event the total number of meetings taking place would have doubled).

We have tried to squeeze three days of business and networking into just four minutes in our special event highlights package below: