Routes Silk Road will take place from 6 – 8 July 2014 in Tbilisi, Georgia and will open with the Routes Silk Road Strategy Summit on Sunday 6^th July. Open to all attending delegates, the Strategy Summit will take place over two days at Routes Silk Road with many high level speakers in attendance.

Attendees of the Summit will hear a Welcome address from Kate Aleksidze, CEO of United Airports Georgia, hosts of Routes Silk Road 2014 and a presentation from Alla Peressolova, Programme Manager, UNWTO Silk Road. These will be followed by a number of moderator led discussions from panels of leading industry experts addressing key air service development issues affecting commercial aviation across the Silk Road region.

The first session entitled Finding the right balance – How will different airline operating models bring success to the region? Will look at whatmix of carriers and operating models will be needed to improve connectivity within and out of the region, and what levels of growth we can expect from this. The session will be moderated by Yuliya Crane, Senior Consultant, Airport Strategy and Marketing (ASM) and will include input from Yevgen Treskunov, EVP Strategy and Development, Ukraine International Airlines and Iase Zautashvili, General Director, Georgian Airways.

Session two, Infrastructure- What will drive growth and expansion? will discuss whether new airports are needed for large scale route development, or if new routes are the only way to justify large expenditure. Moderating this panel will beDr Kostas Iatrou, Managing Director, Air Transport News with input from Vladimir Kamynin, Aviation Business Development Director, Airports of Regions; Mete Erkal, General Manager , TAV Georgia and Vasili Kornev, Deputy Managing Director of Operations, Minsk National Airport.

The third and fourth sessions will take place on Monday 7 July with session three titled Visas - How do Governments influence Tourism?This session will include panellists from the UNWTO Task Force, and will be moderated byJohn Bell, an International journalist, broadcasting expert and tourism consultant with input from Arman Khachaturyan, CEO, National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia.

The fourth and final session is titled How do destinations work with stakeholders to increase air services?This session will discusswhat data is critical to airlines and how can airports position themselves to increase frequencies and new routes. This session will be moderated by Yolanta Strikitsa, Managing Director, Strikitsa Consulting; with a panel of experts including Joni Sundelin Senior Vice-President, Airport Network & Marketing, Finavia and Daniel Burkard, Director of External & International Relations and Deputy Airport Director at Domodedovo Moscow Airport.

Routes Silk Road attracts the industry’s key decision makers and is the must attend event for all those interested in meeting with the industry's key players. The event, which is the annual gathering of air service decision makers for the entire Silk Road region, is expected to attract over 30 airlines and 80 airports along with a number of other industry stakeholders to discuss air service development.

Keep reading the HUB for regular updates on the Routes Silk Road Strategy Summit and for more information and to register for Routes Silk Road 2014 click here.