The 9th Routes Africa will take place from 22nd – 24th June 2014 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and will open with the Routes Africa Strategy Summit on Sunday 22nd June. Open to all attending delegates, the Strategy Summit will take place over two days at Routes Africa with many high level speakers in attendance.
Attendees of the Summit, which is sponsored by aircraft manufacturer ATR, Avions de Transport Regional will hear Keynote Addresses from Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines and Monwabisi Kalawe, CEO, South African Airways. 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 African region.
The first session entitled Africa, Booming Economy…Struggling Aviation Section will look at why the aviation sector in Africa continues to struggle given the new growing economy and weather the lack of a liberalized aviation market is holding back economic development. The session will have input from Dr. Elijah Chingosho, Secretary General, AFRAA; Jeremy Robinson, Legal Director, Hill Dickenson and Chris Zweigenthal, Chief Executive, AASA.
Session two, Taking centre stage: Africa’s place in global route development will discuss what shifts need to take place in order for Africa to step up to the global stage, including what role LCC’s can play in the future of African aviation and are high operating costs and limited market access stifling growth? The panel of experts presentwill includeRichard Bodin, CCO, Fastjet; Cornwell Muleya, CEO, Air Uganda; Raphael Kuuchi, Vice President , Africa, IATA; Imed Ben Abdallah, Head of Airline Marketing ,Middle East & Africa, Bombardier Aerospace and Christophe Allard, CEO, Korongo Airlines.
The third and fourth sessions will take place on Monday 23 June with session three titled Pouring Concrete......Funding Airport Infrastructure and will discuss what the right financial model is for Africa to fund airport infrastructure projects to take it into the future and weather overseas investment will play a role. Panellists will include Saxen van Coller, CEO, Dube TradePort Corporation; Youri Busaan, CEO, AERCO Airports of Congo and the MEC for Limpopo.
The fourth and final session is titled The role of visa facilitation in driving tourism in Africa and will discuss how accessible Africa currently is and what measures are currently being taken to improve the situation. It will also look at how important the visa process is to an airline when selecting a destination.The panel for this session will be moderated by Jon Howell, Tourism Development Manager, Routes and include input from Minister Walter Mzembi, Minister of Tourism for Zimbabwe; Minister Demostenes Pires dos Santos, Commerce Minister for Industry and Tourism, Sao Tome and Principe; Minister Jean Kapata, Minister of Tourism for Zambia; Helder Tomas, Deputy-Director, Regional Programme for Africa, UNWTO and Wilken Bellmann, Head of Network Development, Long Haul and Fares, Condor Airlines.
The Summit will also include a Welcome Address from Ambassador Cain Mathema, Resident Minister for Matabeleland North and a presentation from Bertrand Pabon, Marketing Strategy Director, of our summit sponsors Avions de Transport Regional. On day one, a Keynote Presentation will take place entitled Creating and Connecting Tourism Nodes in Africa delivered by Honourable Walter Mzembi (MP), Minister of Tourism and Hospitality for Zimbabwe, with a second taking place on day two delivered by Michael Mabuyakhulu, MEC Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal.
Routes Africa 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 African region, is expected to attract over 40 airlines, 50 airports and over 15 tourism authorities along with a number of other industry stakeholders to discuss air service development.
Keep reading the HUB for regular updates on the Routes Africa Strategy Summit and for more information and to register for Routes Africa 2014 click here.
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