Minister to give Keynote Address at Routes Americas

Continuing the theme of high level ministerial attendees at Routes events in 2012 The HUB is delighted to announce that Minister Sergio Diaz-Granados, Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism for Colombia has accepted the invitation to give an opening keynote address at the Routes Americas Strategy Summit, which is being held in association with ALTA.

Minister Diaz-Granados believes that air service development is key to the growth of airports and instrumental to the development and prosperity of the cities and regions they serve so is looking forward to playing an important role in this influential event.

The forum, which will be open to all Routes Americas delegates and will open the event on the afternoon of Sunday 10thFebruary, will take the format of 4 moderator led sessions covering various aviation related subjects affecting the Americas region.

Mike Miller, VP Strategy for the American Aviation Institute has confirmed that he will moderate the first session entitled, Let Battle Commence - Consolidation, Mergers and Alliances – who will be the victors? This session will discuss the outlook for the future and the benefits of scale as the airline industry across the Americas is changing shape due to some major mergers taking place and further speakers for this session are expected to be confirmed over the coming weeks.

During the second session; New Generation Aircraft.... How will they change today's route patterns?, moderated by Mark Raggio, VP, Consulting Services – Americas for ASM the panel will include Tomas Aragon, CCO of Eldorado Airport, Boeing’s Vice President Marketing and Value Analysis, Dr Fariba E Alamdari and Patrick Baudis, Vice President Marketing, Latin America & Caribbean for Airbus.

Michael Bell, Partner at Spencer Stuart will moderate session three; Convergence in the industry - Low Cost vs Legacy Carriers? Mr Bell will be joined by panellists Nicolas Rhoads, SVP Commercial Planning for Aeroméxico, Barry Biffle, Executive VP & Chief Marketing Officer of Spirit Airlines, Nicolas Ferri, VP Latin America & Caribbean for Delta Air Lines, Enrique Beltranena, CEO of Volaris and Juan Emilio Posada, CEO of Viva Colombia.

Confirmed panellists for the fourth and final session; Is Regulation Strangling Our Industry? include Beverly Nicholson-Doty, Chairperson of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and Minister Ricky Skerritt, Minister for Tourism & International Transport, St Kitts & Nevis who will moderate this discussion.

The specially developed content and interactive format ensures that the Forum is a popular element of the event. Keep reading The HUB for further updates to the programme over the coming weeks and for more information and to register for Routes Americas 2013 Click here.

Richard Maslen

Richard Maslen has travelled across the globe to report on developments in the aviation sector as airlines and airports have continued to evolve and…