Cancun, Mexico, 17 February 2009

Routes and OAG (Official Airline Guide) last night celebrated the first regional heat of their acclaimed Routes-OAG Airport Marketing Awards and announced the winners for the Americas region. The trophies were presented at the prestigious gala dinner of the 2^nd Routes Americas - the only network planning event for all the Americas - where 200 delegates enjoyed the celebrations at the beautiful Broadwalk Plaza Flamingo by the lagoon in Cancun, Mexico.

Winners were chosen from three categories: North America, South America and the Caribbean. While Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport picked up an award for best airport in North America, Quito International Airport scooped in the South America category. Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo (Aerodom) was crowned best of its kind in the Caribbean.

The overall winner for the entire Americas region is Dallas/Fort Worth. The airport will now automatically be shortlisted in the relevant category for the World Awards, to be held at World Routes in Beijing from 13^th to 15^th September 2009. There they will compete against winners from the other regional Routes events: Routes Asia (Hyderabad, 29^th -31^st March), Routes Europe (Prague, 17^th-19^th May) and Routes Africa (Marrakech, 7^th-9^th June).

Voting for the Routes-OAG Americas Awards started in mid January and was open until February. During this period airlines nominated their preferred airports on Routes' official website at www.routesonline.com using criteria such as the airport's market research activities and marketing communications activities. The shortlisted airports then had to submit a case study to support their nominations to a panel of industry experts who chose the winners.

The Airport Marketing Awards were previously held solely at the World event. The regional heats were introduced to give all airports within each region the chance to be considered and win an award purely based on their marketing activities.

Roll call of winners:

• North America

Winners: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, www.dfwairport.com

Highly Commended: Cancun International Airport, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport

• South America

Winner: Quito International Airport, www.quiport.com

Highly Commended: Jorge Chávez International Airport, Lima

• Caribbean

Winner: Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo (Aerodom), www.aerodom.com

Highly Commended: Curacao International Airport, Nassau Airport

• Overall Winner

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, www.dfwairport.com

- Ends -

Notes to Editors

About OAG (Official Airline Guide)

• § OAG (www.oagcorporate.com) is a global flight information and data solutions company for the passenger aviation, air cargo logistics and business travel markets. The business is underpinned by its data management expertise. OAG is best known for its airline schedules database which feeds the world's global distribution systems and travel portals and drives the internal systems of many airlines, air traffic control systems, aircraft manufacturers, airport planners and government agencies.
• § OAG is part of Commonwealth Business Media (www.cbizmedia.com) a wholly owned subsidiary of United Business Media Limited (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com).

About Routes

• Routes - The World Route Development Forum - is the world renowned annual airline and airport networking event. Routes facilitates and encourages the role of airports in the development of air services through organising global and region specific airline/airport networking forums. Routes is not a conference, but the annual gathering of the route development industry offering formal and informal networking opportunities. www.routesonline.com
• The Airport Marketing Awards were established in 1997 to honour the very best in airport marketing. It is the only industry awards scheme rewarding excellence in airport marketing to airlines.
  

For further press information please contact:

Nadine Wenn, Group PR & Communications Director, RDG/Routes

Tel: +44 161 234 2711

Email: [email protected]