Etihad Airways chief executive James Hogan is among the delegates

The seniority of delegates registered for World Routes, the 18thWorld Route Development Forum is higher than at any previous event.

This year has seen high level registrations from all sectors of the industry including airline and airport chief executives and ministers of tourism.

Many destinations, including Mexico (the second largest tourism economy in the world), Greece, St. Maarten, Sarawak, Trinidad & Tobago, the Seychelles, South Africa and the Philippines, among others have also confirmed that their minister for tourism will be in attendance at World Routes.

Many of these will be delivering ministerial destination briefings as part of the Routes Talks Tourism programme.

The number of ministers who have registered for the event confirms that destinations view route development as an integral part of their economic development and that, as stakeholders, it is important for them to have a presence at World Routes, the largest commercial aviation event.

With 40 airline chief executives currently register to attend World Routes, this year will also see more senior airline delegates in attendance than in previous years.

Carriers which have confirmed that their chief executive will be in attendance in Abu Dhabi include, amongst many others, Kenya Airways, Air Arabia, CSA-Czech Airlines, Etihad Airways, Vueling and Air Seychelles.

This year World Routes will also see a number of senior airport delegates in attendance as registrations have already been received from chief executives of companies such as Aeroports de Montreal, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, Bahrain International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Manchester Airport Group, St Petersburg International Pulkovo Airport and Los Angeles World Airports.

Vice president, commercial, Routes, Nigel Mayes, said: “We are thrilled with level of seniority that this year’s event has attracted from all sectors of the industry.  This interest in World Routes further strengthens our position as the world’s leading commercial aviation event for route development and the number of ministers for tourism in attendance from around the world shows how important stakeholders are during the process of securing new routes to many destinations.”