Frédéric Gagey, Chairman & CEO of Air France will deliver the Keynote address at this year’s Routes Europe Strategy Summit.

The 9^th Routes Europe will open in Marseille on Sunday 6^th April 2014 with the Strategy Summit which will bring together leading industry experts to debate air service and route development issues affecting commercial aviation across Europe.

Open to all attending delegates, the Summit, which is sponsored by Edmonton International Airport, willinvolve three main moderator led sessions covering various aviation related subjects:

Session one, Low Cost Carriers – The next frontier for innovation

This session will take a look at the evolution of LCCs which continues to change. With other carriers beginning to offer similar services to passengers, the session will discuss whether, in future, price will be the only differentiator and whether the LCCs will continue to compete against each other or look to take market share from some of the legacy carriers. This session will be moderated by David Huttner, Senior Vice President and Partner, Nyras Ltd and include input from John Hanlon, Secretary General, ELFAA.

Session 2, Government Policy – can progress be made or is it just a case of Déjà Vu?

Moderated by Vijay Poonoosamy, Vice President International & Public Affairs, Etihad Airways this session will examine the restrictive regulations, high taxes and unfair subsidies that are stifling true competition, with input from Pini Shani, Director Overseas Department, Israel Ministry of Tourism and Athar Husain Khan, CEO, Association of European Airlines. As Europe is not a level playing field the panel will discuss how industry bodies can work together to implement changes for the good of the whole industry along with what form consolidation will take and how the Alliances will emerge.

Session 3, Cruising at Altitude - working with the cruise and tour operator industry

The global cruise industry is the fastest growing segment of the travel and tourism industry and the third and final session will ask how the cruise industry and aviation industry can work together more closely whilst asking what the future role of the wider tour operator industry is. The final session will be moderated by Didier Scalliet, VP Business Development, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and include input from Christian Delom, Director of Strategy and New Technologies, Atout France.

Many other high level speakers and panellists having also confirmed their attendance at these sessions including: Fernando Estrada, Strategy & Alliances Director, Vueling; Tamur Goudarzi Pour, Director, Network Planning , Lufthansa; John Weatherill, Director, Network and Schedule planning, WestJet; Clayton Ulisses Begido, Director, Commercial Strategy, Flynas; Carol Hewitt, Director, Route Development, Edmonton International Airport; Mark Anzur, President of the Management Board and CEO of Adria Airways; Jeremy Robinson, Legal Director, Hill Dickinson; Kjartan Jonsson, Director, Network Planning at Icelandair; Gudny Maria Johannsdottir, Manager, Business and Routes Development, ISAVIA; Inga Hlin Palsdottir, Director, Tourism & Creative Industries, Promote Iceland; Josef Formosa Gauci, CEO, Malta Tourism Authority; Jacques Truau, Président of the club de la Croisière and Andreas A. Stylianopoulos, President and CEO, Navigator Travel and Representative of Royal Caribbean in Greece.

Click here for more information about Routes Europe or to register for the event.