Past five years’ Routes Europe award winners – where are they now?

2018 & 2015: Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport have twice been named Overall Winner at the Routes Europe Marketing Awards, first in 2015 and again in 2018.

At the time of winning in 2015, Brussels Airport had 14.8 million available seats, by the end of 2018 this had increased to 15.9 million, a growth of over 1.1 million available seats in just three years, despite suffering a tragic terrorist attack in 2016 which slowed their growth in 2016 and the following year.

In 2018, Brussels Airport celebrated not only their 60th year in operation, but also a second Overall Winner award. In their 60th year, they welcomed over 25.6 million passengers, an all-time record which they say was driven by the expansion of their intercontinental network. Nearly two out of three travellers from Brussels airport were flying long-haul, and new routes such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai, and Bangkok helped to fuel this uplift.

2018 saw exceptional growth from some of the airport’s partner airlines, with Rwandair growing seat capacity by 224.6 percent, Sunexpress by 100.1 percent and BMI Regional by 85.9 percent. Brussels Airport welcomed back Air France after a four-year hiatus, and welcomed new partners Cathay Pacific and Georgian Airways, with flights to Georgia operating for the first time.

2017: Munich airport

Munich Airport was announced as the overall winner at Routes Europe 2017 Marketing Awards in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

At the time, the airport’s network included 267 destinations, served by 90 carriers. A year later at the end of 2018, the airport had expanded their number of destinations to 271 served by 97 airlines.

Last year, Munich airport reported its ninth consecutive record-breaking year with passenger traffic rising by a robust 1.7 million to an all-time high of 46.3 million, an increase of almost 4percent on the previous year.

Munich Airport credit their success to their attractive, worldwide route network, with passenger traffic on long-haul flights up by an impressive 7percent on 2017, and European routes up by 5 percent.

2016: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

2016’s Overall Marketing Award winner, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, saw 71 million people pass through the airport in 2018, a growth of 3.7 percent on the previous year.

At the time of winning the award in 2016, Schiphol was directly connected to 276 destinations serviced by 94 airlines. Two years later, the number of airlines they work with has dropped to 84, yet the number of one-stop destinations they serve has increased over 26 percent to 285.

Schiphol’s network extends to 326 destinations in total, a number which has remained the same in 2018 as it was in 2017. For Schiphol, whose slots are at capacity, the focus now is on quality over quantity. Retired destinations made way for new ones and Schiphol welcomes Orlando International, USA; Alghero, Italy; Beirut, Lebanon; Eilat, Israel; Fortaleza, Brazil; Mombassa, Kenya; and Växjö, Sweden.

2014: Bremen Airport

Since winning the award in 2014, Bremen Airport’s route network has remained stable, with a few added or removed each year, however; seat capacity has increased from 1.609 million to 1.673 million in the same time span, a not insignificant increase of over 6,3700 seats for an airport who competed in the Under 4 Million Category – the smallest of the categories, who then went on to win the overall prize at Routes Europe 2014.