Auckland airport beat off competition to become the overall winner in the second regional heat of this year's prestigious Airport Marketing Awards, held at the Routes Asia gala dinner tonight (Monday 19^th April) in Adelaide's newly renovated Entertainment Centre. Matthew Findlay, the airport's route development manager, proudly scooped up the accolade on stage, a few minutes after Auckland was announced winners in the Oceania category. While Melbourne and Adelaide airports both picked up highly commended awards in this category for their recognised contribution to marketing.

The airports chosen in the remaining four categories included: Changi Airport (winner) and Kuala Lumpur (highly commended) in the South-East Asia Category; Hyderabad (winner) in the India sub-continent category; King Fahd International (winner) and Abu Dhabi (highly commended) in the Middle East category and Seoul Incheon (Winner) in the China and North-East Asia category.

The theme of the evening was "From the Ocean to the Outback", with a different scene and experience of Adelaide and indeed, Australia in every corner. The show-stopping night struck a chord with the Aussie laid-back style, with help-yourself oysters catching eyes at the bar, gourmet barbeque meats dished out in baskets, live performances from country-style bands, a cracking display from young whip cracker champions, and finishing off with a comedy act and a laugh and a joke at the expense of some good sports in the crowd.

Reporter: Louise Driscoll, Adelaide

Edmonton International Airport was last night (February 15) crowned the overall winner in the Americas heat of the Airport Marketing Awards at the Routes Americas gala dinner. The Canadian airport will now automatically be shortlisted for an award at World Routes in Vancouver during September.

Edmonton's director of air service development, Carol Hutchins, was on hand to collect the award at the sparkling gala dinner that showcased the best of Peruvian song and dance. Delegates joined in celebrating Edmonton's win by dancing until the early hours on a warm and humid night in Lima.

Edmonton also won the North American category, with Dallas/Fort Worth and Southwest Florida International's airline marketing efforts each being recognised with highly commended awards.
Meanwhile, in the Central American and Caribbean category, Aruba walked away with the award, with Curacao-Hato International Airport taking highly commended. In South America, Quito was recognised as top in the region and Lima Airport Partners landed a highly commended certificate.