The Routes Asia 2026 conference and awards ceremony is taking place today in Xi’an, China, bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities from across the Asia Pacific region to discuss route development strategy and recognise outstanding achievements in air service growth.
Among the finalists competing for the prestigious Routes Asia Awards is Malaysia’s Penang International Airport, which has been shortlisted in the 5 to 20 million passenger category. Penang handled 8.31 million passengers in 2025, representing 8.4 per cent growth year on year, supported by a 7.3 per cent increase in seat capacity and the launch of six new services during the year.
The airport welcomed four new airlines in 2025, bringing its total carrier count to 26, and expanded its network to 34 cities across Asia and the Middle East. New routes launched during the year included services to Yangon, Jakarta, Medan, Singapore, Chengdu and Haikou. Traffic from China grew particularly strongly, rising 88.9 per cent to nearly one million passengers, reflecting the broader recovery in Chinese outbound travel.
Other airport finalists in the same category include Adelaide Airport in Australia, which reached 9 million annual passengers in 2025 with 21 per cent year on year growth, and Cam Ranh International Terminal in Vietnam, which welcomed 13 new airlines and added 14 new city pair links during the year.
In the under 5 million passenger category, Clark International Airport in the Philippines is among the finalists, having recorded 14 per cent passenger growth and 18 per cent flight growth in 2025. Clark expanded its international network with new services to Seoul Incheon and Koror, Palau.
Singapore Changi Airport and Tokyo Narita Airport are competing in the over 20 million passenger category. Changi handled close to 70 million passengers in 2025 and expanded its network to more than 170 cities, while Narita supported 18 new routes launched by 15 airlines over the past 12 months.
On the airline side, the finalists include Cathay Pacific, IndiGo, Jetstar Airways and Qantas. Cathay Pacific launched 20 new routes in 2025 and has committed more than HK$100 billion in investments including fleet renewal with more than 100 new generation aircraft. IndiGo carried more than 120 million passengers and operated approximately 2,200 daily flights across 140 destinations. Qantas added more than 40 new domestic routes and 25 new international routes, including the first scheduled service between Australia and Las Vegas planned for 2026.
The Routes Asia Awards are presented annually in recognition of outstanding achievements in airport and destination marketing, with winners determined by a panel of airline judges for the airport and destination categories and editorial judges for the airline category.
Winners will be announced at the Routes Asia Networking Evening in Xi’an today. The conference itself runs from 14 to 16 April and serves as one of the Asia Pacific aviation industry’s key forums for route development discussions, bringing together decision makers from airlines, airports and tourism bodies to negotiate future air service agreements.
The event takes on added significance this year against the backdrop of Middle East airspace disruptions, rising fuel costs and shifting traffic patterns across the Asia Europe corridor, all of which are reshaping route development priorities for airlines and airports across the region.
