Routes Americas 2013, in association with ALTA, will take place on 10-12 February 2013 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and scheduling for the event is due to open next week which is almost a month earlier than usual.

The event, which is the annual gathering of air service decision makers for all of the Americas, will bring together more than 350 delegates from airports, airlines, tourism authorities and other industry stakeholders from across the Americas to discuss air service development. Routes Americas attracts key decision makers from a wide variety of airlines represented by senior key decision makers that are responsible for making decisions on both new and existing routes. Airlines who have already confirmed their attendance at Routes Americas 2013 include all four major US carriers; United Airlines, US Airways, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines along with other recent registrations from WestJet, Southwest, Spirit Airlines and Avianca. The complete list of registered airlines can be found here.

Further to the early opening of Scheduling for the event Routes Americas delegates will be able to use the new and improved online Meeting Requests System which made its debut earlier this year when it was used for World Routes in Abu Dhabi.

For the last four years airport delegates attending Routes events have been able to request their one-to-one meetings online via their Routesonline profile and now this is being extended to other types of delegates. This new meeting requests website will not only allow airports but also airlines, tourism authorities and anyone else with an entitlement of pre-arranged meetings to log –in and make their requests online.

Not only is this new and improved site faster and easier to use but it also provides a better interaction with Routesonline. The new Meeting Requests site will provide delegates with the perfect platform to request and prepare for their meetings at Routes Americas as, during the requesting process, access to Routesonline company profiles is available helping delegates select the right companies to meet with by providing all the information Routesonline has to offer straight to the central meeting requests page.

Historically the requests website allowed airport delegates to request meetings with airlines and now, for the first time, delegates will be able to request meetings with all other types of delegates from one central point. This means that City Pair (airport to airport) requests are now available online in addition to the brand new online requesting feature for airlines.

One of the major improvements on the site is the provision for delegates to view their draft diaries online. Closer to the event a completely live and updated version of your draft diary will be available to view online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the personal requests page. This should allow delegates to better prepare for the meetings they expect to take place in Cartagena and increase the overall Routes experience.

The site also features other improvements such as easily dragging requests into the desired order of importance, easy editing of requests, requesting meetings on behalf of colleagues or inviting them to meetings requested and the usual countdown of how many meeting requests are still available.

Scheduling for Routes Americas 2013 is due to open on 10thDecember and delegates will have access to the system until 1stFebruary 2013 when scheduling closes. This means that meeting requests can be submitted and amended at any time and this new requests site promises to make the experience of requesting pre-arranged meetings a simple and pleasant one.

Click here for more information and to register for Routes Americas 2013.