Taking place on Sunday 12thMay 2013 and open to all attending delegates, The Routes Europe Strategy Summit will open Routes Europe in Budapest. The Strategy Summit will provide a valuable insight into aviation across the region as panels of leading industry experts take part in a number of moderator led discussions addressing key air service development issues effecting commercial aviation in Europe.

Attendees of the Summit will hear Welcome from Jost Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport followed by a keynote address from Mr József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air. Three moderator led sessions covering various aviation related subjects affecting the region will then take place.

Session one, entitled ETS – The Big Freeze will discuss the effect that the EU freeze on ETS will have on traffic from the US and China into the EU and how it might help European airline groups. Moderated by Mr Vijay Poonoosamy, VP International & Public Affairs of Etihad Airways and Chair of IATA Industry Affairs Committee panellists taking part in this session include Mr John Hanlon, Secretary General of ELFAA and Mr Gábor Szarvas, Head of Environment and Safety Protection for Budapest Airport.

During the second session; Survival of the Fittest – Consolidation, Mergers & Alliances moderator Mr Tony Griffin, Senior Vice President of ASM will ask whether the European airline market is too fragmented. Will there be further failures? This session will also look at how successful the existing mergers have been and whether they have delivered the benefits of scale. How will the recent deals between Emirates & Qantas and Etihad’s Strategic Equity Alliance impact on European carriers? Is there is room in a crowded market for regional carriers? What role do the alliances play in this new market place? The panel for this session will include Mr Fatih Cigal, Manager Network Planning for Turkish Airlines, Mr Kam Jandu, Executive Director Aviation for Budapest Airport and Mr George Karamanos, Aviation and Travel Consultant.

The third session; The Future Evolution of the LCC Business Model will take a look at the evolution of LCCs which continues to change. Network Carriers are using LCCs to serve point to point markets they cannot sustain, for example Air France, Lufthansa and Iberia, many are moving away from the simple low-cost model and blending their product with tiered service levels, lounges, loyalty schemes and targeting of business travellers. Hybrid models are emerging and there is a convergence of LCC and full service models. Will long haul low cost services succeed? How will the model develop further and what are challenges do the LCCs of the future face? Confirmed panellists for this final session of the day include Mr Francois Bouteiller, CEO of Nasair, Mr Fernando Estrada, Strategy & Alliance Director for Vueling, Mr Dirk Kokcott, Director of Business Development for Germanwings and Mr Nigel Mayes, Vice President & Commercial, Routes who will moderate this discussion.

The specially developed hard hitting content and interactive format ensures that the Summit 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 Europe 2013 click here.