Routesonline is dedicated to bringing the latest and most relevant data and information to support airlines, airports and destinations in their route development activities. Routesonline is the website for all information about Routes events – bringing the industry’s breaking news through the HUB newsletter and professional networking – and it is home to the unique Route Exchange facility.
Route Exchange is where airports and airlines can create profiles, post available aircraft capacity and actively campaign their target airports. It also allows them to specify their criteria for new air services. Airline users have direct access to Route Exchange airport profiles, which have full airport intelligence and allow contacts to be made before or after Routes events.
RFP facility
A key development for Routesonline was the introduction in 2011 of the online request for proposal (RFP) process, where airlines use the Route Exchange to RFP from airports to assist them in their network developments plans.
The first RFP was launched at Routes Europe 2011, where a team from Air Asia X flew from Malaysia to attend the event in Italy so they could deliver a briefing to all attendees.
"Route Exchange is the one-stop shop for all our route development needs," says Senthil Balan, head, network planning and regulatory affairs, AirAsia X. "It’s one of our key sources for route evaluation and airport intelligence, and provides useful insights into competitors’ fleet sizes, expansion plans and configurations."
Airlines have long recognised the power of using Route Exchange to request market data at the touch of a button. For 2012, two new RFPs are in operation on the site with Scoot, the new medium and long-haul, lowcost division of Singapore Airlines, and IndiGo, the Indian low-cost airline, both having launched RFPs earlier this year. "We at Scoot view Route Exchange as the perfect platform to deliver the significant opportunity that this RFP will provide to airports offering a transparent process to everybody," said Campbell Wilson, CEO at Scoot.
Online growth
Another exciting development has been the significant increase in airline activity and participation on Routesonline – airline users now outnumber airport users.
There has been a clear trend towards more senior airline executives registering. This is likely to continue, as Route Exchange member airlines and airports continue to load even more market-specific content.
2012 will be another exciting year for Routesonline, not only in terms of the functionality and usability of the site, but also regarding the team. Two more sales managers have joined the staff: a dedicated client relations manager and an online development manager, who will together ensure that Routesonline is the route development community’s complete network planning website.
