Attending this year's World Routes in Chengdu, China with a five strong team, Edinburgh Airport are at the 22nd World Route Development Forum with the aim of attracting new airlines and selling Scotland to the world. But, above all they plan to use the event to reinforce a strategy to secure future direct connectivity between Scotland's capital city and China's growing gateways.

The airport's air service development team said that with 3,000 delegates from 300 airlines, 700 airports and 130 tourism authorities participating in 13,000 pre-arranged short meetings to discuss, develop and plan route strategy, "this is the number one aviation conference" giving unlimited business and networking opportunities and "is the focal event for senior decision makers" in the route development global community.

“World Routes is a massive event in the calendar for airports with global ambitions like we do – so it is tremendous for Edinburgh Airport to be here in China. This year our team of five includes the biggest executive representation we have ever taken to Routes, and this makes clear the scale of our commitment to delivering international growth at Edinburgh," said Gordon Dewar, chief executive officer, Edinburgh Airport to Routesonline at the event's Saturday Reception.

“The strong partnership between Edinburgh Airport and the airlines that fly here has been crucial in opening up new routes and opportunities between Scotland and the rest of the world and we are keen to add to our existing portfolio of international airlines, routes and destinations. We are aiming to bring some new high profile routes to Edinburgh Airport, not only for people and businesses in Scotland who will gain from greater direct international connectivity but also for inbound tourism which will deliver jobs, benefiting Scotland’s economy at large,” he added.