MANCHESTER, England, March 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Abu Dhabi International Airport crowned overall winner in Kuching

Earlier this week Abu Dhabi International Airport was announced as the winner of the Asia heat of this year's Routes Marketing Awards. The awards ceremony took place during the Routes Asia Networking Evening hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Sarawak at the Pullman Kuching Hotel and over 700 aviation professionals were gathered to witness the presentation of the awards and to take part in the 12^th Routes Asia - the largest route development event for the entire Asia region.

The event was also attended by Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Sarawak's Minister for Tourism who presented Abu Dhabi International Airport with their award. Commenting on winning the award, Tony Douglas, CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: "It is a great honour to receive the Routes Marketing Award for Asia. This accolade only adds to the growing significance of Abu Dhabi International Airport as a state-of-the-art growing transportation hub in the Asian region. The award is a result of the commitment of our airport team and airline partners in providing our passengers with the highest levels of services. It also motivates us to continue developing and enhancing our facilities and products to ensure we provide a unique travel experience to all segments of passengers whether arriving, departing or transiting through Abu Dhabi International Airport."

The annual Routes awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. They provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport or tourism authority they think provides the best overall marketing services to them whether this relates to their particular relationship, effective results, provision of data and information or innovative techniques to establish new or maintain and develop existing routes.

"We are delighted to announce Abu Dhabi as the winner of this regional heat of our awards and would like to congratulate them and all of our winners," commented Katie Bland, Director Routes, UBM Live continuing: "In the past 12 months Abu Dhabi has achieved some great results. The airport recorded double digit growth for the fourth year in a row, at 12%, in 2013 and welcomed six new carriers with 49 additional weekly flights operated by foreign airlines."

Abu Dhabi were also named as the winner from the 4-20 million passengers category with Changi Airport Group ranked top from the over 20 million passengers category. From the under 4 million passengers category Darwin International Airport were honoured and the Destination Award went to Tourism Australia.

As overall winner of this regional heat, Abu Dhabi International Airport will be automatically shortlisted for the World Routes Marketing Awards which will take place at the event in Chicago, 20-23 September 2014. Abu Dhabi joins Tampa International Airport, who were announced as overall winner of the Americas heat last month in San Salvador.

The shortlisted finalists were nominated by airlines and a respected panel of judges made up of senior members of the airline network planning community from the region then reviewed the lists and submissions from the nominated airports in order to determine the winners.  The panel consisted of the following experts:

Venggatarao Niadu, Head of Network, Air Asia

Genen NISHIMURA, International & Domestic Network Planning, Managing Division, Route Marketing, Japan Airlines

Eric Nabong, Manager - Business Planning, Philippine Airlines

Trevor Spinks, Head of Planning & revenue Management, Scoot

The full list of companies shortlisted under each award category were as follows:

Over 20 Million Passengers
Changi Airport Group - Winner
Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport - Highly Commended
Kunming Changshui International Airport - Highly Commended
Melbourne International Airport

4 - 20 Million Passengers
Abu Dhabi International Airport - Winner
Christchurch International Airport - Highly Commended
Bangalore International Airport
Nanning Wuxu International Airport
Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport

Under 4 MillionPassengers
Darwin International Airport - Winner
Cambodia Airports - Sihanoukville International Airport - Highly Commended
Clark International Airport
Ras Al Khaimah International Airport

Destination Marketing Award
Tourism Australia - Winner
Philippine Department of Tourism - Highly Commended
Singapore Tourism Board
Tourism Malaysia
Tourism New Zealand

Notes to Editors

About Routes

• Routes organises world-renowned airline and airport networking events through its regional and global Route Development Forums. Each year, there is one global event and one regional event in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and CIS respectively. http://www.routesonline.com
• Routes was founded in 1995 as part of the Manchester UK‐based ASM Ltd., a consultancy specialising in the field of route development for airports. http://www.asm-global.com. Routes and ASM are part of the UBM Live division of UBM plc.
• UBM Live connects people and creates opportunities for companies across five continents to develop new business, meet customers, launch new products, promote their brands and expand their markets.  Through premiere brands such as MD&M, CPhI, IFSEC, TFM&A, Cruise Shipping Miami, the Concrete Show, the Routes portfolio of events, Airport Cities and many others, UBM Live exhibitions, conferences, awards programs, publications, websites and training and certification programs are an integral part of the marketing plans of companies across more than 20 industry sectors. http://www.ubmlive.com

Follow us on twitter: @Routesonline, @TheHUBRoutes, @VictoriaRoutes, @NLPROU, @airlineroute

About UBM plc

• UBM plc is a global events-led marketing services and communications company.  We help businesses do business, bringing the world's buyers and sellers together at events and online, as well as producing and distributing news and specialist content.  Our 5,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into expert teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.
• For more information, go to http://www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBM_plc to get the latest UBM corporate news; follow @UBM for news from all UBM's businesses; follow @UBM for a flavour of UBM from selected members of UBM's Twitterati.

SOURCE UBM Live Routes Ltd