Routes Europe 2022

Bergen, Norway
• 18 – 20 May 2022

Routes Europe 2022

Routes Europe 2022 will unite decision-makers from airlines, airports, destinations and aviation stakeholders that are invested in the future of European air connectivity.

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Conference Programme Speakers

Stein Nilsen

CEO, Widerøe

Stein Nilsen has been the CEO of Widerøe since 2015. Prior to this, he was a consultant with Credo Partners, an investment company based in Oslo. Nilsen has extensive experience from a number of transport companies in Norway and Sweden. He was head of ground services for the SAS Group and for a period headed SAS’s aviation activities in Norway. He was also EVP of passenger transport at NSB (Norwegian National Railways), and CEO of the Nobina transport company before joining Credo Partners in 2012. Nilsen holds a Master of Science in Business (siv.økon.) from Nord University and a Master in Law from the University of Oslo. Nilsen is also Chairman of the Board of NHO Luftfart (Conferation of Norwegian Enterprises, Aviation) and Widerøe Ground Handling AS.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Raimonds Gruntins

Director of Regional Affairs Europe, IATA

Raimonds Gruntins is IATA’s Director of Regional Affairs Europe, based in Madrid, with over 20 years of experience in commercial aviation.

Raimonds joined IATA in 2008, first as a Manager in Business Development at the association’s executive office in Geneva. In 2011 he moved to Stockholm to lead the regional office for the Nordic and Baltic countries. In 2012 and 2013, he was also Area Manager for IATA’s work in Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia.

He has extensive experience in airline management within sales and marketing, ground operations, cargo, global distribution systems and electronic data interchange. His career has seen him engaging extensively with both government as well as international organisations related to aviation.

Raimonds holds degrees in Economics, Business Administration and Public Relations.

 

Participating Talks and Sessions

Juliana Kiraly

Business Development Lead – Europe, Eve Urban Air Mobility

Juliana leads Eve’s Business Development in Europe, being responsible for the sales strategy of Eve’s eVTOL and services in the region, for securing partnerships throughout the UAM ecosystem, and for supporting future operations.

Mrs. Kiraly has been working in aviation for more than 10 years. She started her career at Embraer Commercial Aviation, where she worked in areas such as Flight Operations, Market Intelligence and Sales & Marketing. Prior to joining Eve, Juliana held the role of Marketing Manager at Embraer, being responsible for the sales strategy in Western and Northern Europe, building complex models, structuring sales campaigns, performing quantitative and qualitative analysis and presenting market opportunities to the airlines in the region. She holds a bachelor in Aeronautical Engineering from University of São Paulo and a Master in Business Strategy from FIA

Participating Talks and Sessions

Abelardo Muñoz Martín

Airport Affairs Director, Aeroméxico

Abelardo Munoz leads the Airport Affairs team at Aeromexico, Mexico's global airline. He has 7 years of experience in aviation, holding different positions within the airline’s Regulatory Analysis and Public Affairs teams. During the past three years, Abelardo has successfully built solid corporate relationships with Mexican airport groups in order to provide optimal financial and operational conditions. By doing this, he has shaped a new way to partner with airports and national and international industry associations to develop joint projects in numerous matters.

 

Abelardo received his BA in Public Policy from CIDE and is to conclude his bachelor’s studies in Law by the end of the year. Additionally, he worked in the Ministry of Economic Development of the State of Aguascalientes, steering efforts to liaise with Mexican and foreign private companies.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Stephanie Boyle

Head of Industry and Partner Communications, Skyscanner

 Based in London, Stephanie Boyle heads up global industry and partner communications at Skyscanner. She and her team are responsible for building relationships with key associations and stakeholders within the travel and tourism sectors and spearheading our partner PR and comms strategy.   

Stephanie has extensive experience in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, having participated in numerous industry events and roundtables over the past decade. Prior to Skyscanner, she built out the communications and industry relations team at travel media startup Culture Trip. Before that, she oversaw global industry communications and engagement at Tripadvisor for eight years. Stephanie started her career in travel as a destination marketing specialist for VisitEngland and the Normandy Tourism Board.  

Participating Talks and Sessions

David Hild

Chief Executive Officer, Fly Green Fund

David Hild is the CEO of the nonprofit organization Fly Green Fund since 2019. Fly Green Fund was founded in 2015 and offers SAF to air travelers as an option to carbon offsetting. Fly Green Fund is also working to increase supply and production of SAF in the Scandinavian countries by supporting research and development. Fly Green Fund has contributed with knowledge in several official reports and policy decisions.

David also has a background as the CEO of the Swedish Air Transport Society and in politics.

 Holder of a private pilot license

Participating Talks and Sessions

Arnaud Runge

Applications Engineer, European Space Agency (ESA)

Arnaud RUNGE has a multidisciplinary background: while holding a master degree in Medical Engineering, he is also passionate about aviation. He started flying at 14 and gradually obtained his Private Pilot license, became flight instructor and now holds a frozen ATPL pilot license. He joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004 to work as Medical Engineer in charge of medical instrumentation for future long-term space manned exploration missions. He is also working since 2008 as ESA project officer on a large number of aviation projects, which are sponsored by ESA’s Business Applications & Space Solutions (BASS) programme. With almost 2000 hours logged on different types of aircrafts, he is one of ESA’s spokespersons for activities related to Aviation and one of the privileged interfaces within ESA to assess the potential and discuss new activities with the industry. 

Participating Talks and Sessions

Giovanni Garofalo

Satellite Communications Engineer, European Space Agency (ESA)

Giovanni Garofalo, is a Satellite Communications Engineer. After few years at Selenia Spazio as system engineer, he joined the European Space Agency in 1989. Since then, he has been involved in various advanced R&D activities. He joined Iris Team from the start as Lead Engineer and is now Iris Project Manager.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Gaute Riise

Vice President Traffic Development, Avinor

Gaute Riise joined Avinor back in 2016 as a route development manager. With him he brought many years of operational experience as an airline pilot. Since he joined Avinor, he has also managed the route development department before heading the area of Traffic Development since 2020. Further Gaute is also a holder of an MBA degree with specialization in Aviation Management.

With an genuine interest for the future of the aviation industry, Gaute is engaged in the topic of how to facilitate the travel flows of the future by air, in a sustainable and low emission way. Gaute is also on the board of Visit Oslo.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Carolin Käufler

Business Development Manager, Rolls-Royce Solutions

Carolin is an expert on microgrid systems with experience in business development, data analysis and network management. She is driving forward the energy infrastructure offering of RRS for new customer segments, such as EV charging integration.

Carolin holds a M.Sc. in International Business Management and her previous professional experience introduced her to a wide array of BD areas within the field of Future Mobility Solutions for ShareNow and Daimler Buses. She is passionate about advancing the energy transition, facing the challenges posed by climate change and by society’s rapidly growing demands for energy.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Stefan Breunig

Head of Strategy, Rolls-Royce Electrical

Stefan is driving strategy definition and execution for Rolls-Royce’s electrification efforts in new emerging markets like Urban and Regional Air Mobility. He joined the Rolls-Royce team in 2019 with the acquisition of Siemens eAircraft where he previously worked as innovation manager. He holds master’s degree and PhD in engineering.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Jon-Ivar Nygård

Minister of Transport, Government of Norway

Jon-Ivar Nygård (Labour Party) became Minister of Transport on 14th October 2021.

Prior to that he was mayor of Fredrikstad from 2011 and sat on the city council from 1993. Nygård has held several positions in the Labour Party and in elected bodies. He sat on the Labour Party's national board in the period 2003–2004 and has been a member of the central board of the Labour Party since 2014. He has been elected to the Storting as the representative for Østfold during the period 2021–2025. Nygård has a master's degree from the University of Oslo and Østfold University College with studies in history, social economics and political science.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Anna Andersson

Manager Nordic Markets, ENIT - The Italian National Tourist Board

ENIT-The Italian National Tourist Board is since 1919 marketing Italy as a tourist destination, with headquarters in Rome and by now with 27 Offices over the world.

The Stockholm Office is in charge for the Nordic markets (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland), operating both b2b and b2c, supporting travel trade to develop their Italy product and media to diversify the image of Italy, and not the least operating through different channels to reach the end-consumers with information and inspiration for new Italian discoveries.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Thomas Reynaert

Managing Director, Airlines for Europe (A4E)

Thomas Reynaert is Managing Director of Airlines for Europe (A4E), Europe’s largest EU airline association, since its launch in 2016. A4E was founded in January 2016 by Air France-KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group (IAG), Lufthansa Group and Ryanair Holdings.

Prior to joining A4E, Thomas was President of United Technologies (UTC) International Operations (Europe), where he led their European government relations activities between 2008–2015. During this time, he provided counsel to the corporation and its business units on EU rulemaking and policy and served as a corporate liaison for key decision-makers in the EU institutions and national governments.

Prior to joining UTC, Thomas led the government relations and regulatory affairs team for Nortel Networks in EMEA, in 2000. Previously, he was director of EU public affairs for Lucent Technologies (today: ‘Alcatel-Lucent’).

Thomas was a member of the Supervisory Board of the UTC Company OTIS Management GmbH (Germany) from 2008–2014. From 2011–2015 he was Chair of AmCham EU’s Security and Defense Committee, and in 2015 was appointed a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA).

Participating Talks and Sessions

Rafael Schvartzman

Regional Vice President, Europe, IATA

Rafael advocates for the interest of IATA's members and strengthening the relationships with aviation stakeholders across the Europe and Central Asia region.

Rafael joined IATA in 2005 as country manager for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and has held various positions in the association since then.

Rafael's aviation expertise also includes a decade at DHL in the Americas and experience working for a range of air transport companies in South America.

Rafael holds a master in positive leadership and strategy from IE Business School and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of the Pacific. He has lived in numerous countries including Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. He speaks Spanish and English.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Knut Perander

Head of Development, Visit Norway

Knut Perander is head of Visit Norway’s development team.

The team portfolio includes the highly acclaimed Sustainable Destinations program, which includes numerous destinations in Norway. The team also has a strong focus on developing experiences through courses, knowledge sharing av financing.

Visit Norway is a part of Innovation Norway, the Norwegian Government's most important instrument for innovation and development of Norwegian enterprises and industry. We have offices in all regions in Norway, and also more than 20 locations abroad.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Stein Ove Rolland

Chief Executive Officer, Fjord Norway

Stein Ove Rolland (49) grew up on Osterøy, an island surrounded by fjords, only 30 minutes away from Bergen. Stein Ove completed Bachelor within tourism and marketing from BI Norwegian Business School in 1996 and left directly for a job as project manager with the Norwegian Tourist Board in Germany, based in Hamburg. Four years later he took on the position as market director for the Benelux, working from Amsterdam. Two years later he was asked to return to Hamburg as the Norwegian Tourist Board´s regional director for both Germany and the Benelux. In 2004, Stein Ove was asked to bring his market expertise to the newly founded government company, Innovation Norway, which also has the responsibility of Visit Norway and the promotion of Norway. Stein Ove has worked in several positions as marketing director, head of strategy and partnerships, business development and new markets. In April 2020, Stein Ove took on as the CEO of Fjord Norway, the official tourism board of Western Norway. He is married with two girls and lives in Bergen.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Olav Mosvold Larsen

Senior Executive Advisor, Avinor

Working for Avinor – Norway’s Air Navigation Service Provider and airport operator – since 2007, Olav is currently VP Sustainability. His responsibilities includes activities related to carbon emission reductions at Avinor’s 44 airports, as well as introduction of sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen and electrified passenger aircraft. Mr. Larsen has amongst others chaired ACI Europe’s Environmental Strategy Committee. He holds a degree in political science and has worked as a researcher at the University of Oslo, Centre for Development and the Environment.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Geir Karlsen

Chief Executive Officer, Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA

Mr. Geir Karlsen (born 1965) has been Chief Executive Officer in Norwegian since June 2021. He held the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since April 2018, and served as Acting Chief Executive Officer from July to December 2019. He has extensive experience from listed companies within shipping and offshore. Mr. Karlsen has over the last 12 years held various CFO positions at international companies such as Golden Ocean Group and Songa Offshore. Before Norwegian, he held the position Group CFO at London-based Navig8 Group, the world's largest independent pool and management company. Geir Karlsen has a degree in Business Administration from BI Norwegian Business School.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Bjørn Tore Larsen

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Norse Atlantic Airways

Bjørn Tore Larsen is the founder, CEO and the major shareholder of Norse Atlantic Airways, Bjørn Tore has been interested in and passionate about aviation for as long as he can remember. He holds several type ratings, including the Boeing 747.

Bjørn Tore has extensive international shipping experience, which includes founding and controlling OSM Maritime Group in 1989, a ship management company headquartered in Norway with more than 16,000 employees internationally and ADS Maritime Holding, a company listed on the Euronext Growth Exchange in Oslo. He is the majority shareholder of OSM Flight Academy, which has pilot schools in the U.S., Norway and Sweden. He is also the majority shareholder of OSM Airtech, which offers aircraft maintenance services in Norway and Sweden.

Bjørn Tore is a self-made entrepreneur who spent a year at sea when he was 16. Soon after returning home to go to high school, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a businessman, and at the age of 18 acquired a travel agency near his now hometown of Arendal, Norway. Three years later he founded OSM Maritime, which is now among the largest ship management companies in the world.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Sigurd Overbo

Head of Rolls-Royce Electrical, Norway, Rolls-Royce

Participating Talks and Sessions

Andrea Tucci

Vice President, SEA Milan Airports

Born in Naples in 1961, Andrea Tucci is a business and economics graduate. He moved to SEA Milan (May 2014) with the responsibility for the aviation business development of the Malpensa and Milano Linate airports. The two airports together, count for over 34 million passengers per year and a Cargo activity of over 550 mln tons. More than 100 passenger carriers and 21 Cargo operators are currently operating to Malpensa and Linate covering a network of more than 200 direct destinations of which 15 are cargo only. In his role Mr. Tucci is accountable for the of the promotion of the two airports within the cargo and passenger airlines community.

Mr. Tucci began his career in the air transportation industry with Alitalia in 1985 as financial controller. In 1995, he then, moved to the Network Planning Division where he became “Vice President of Network Planning and Commercial Agreements” in 2000. Before joining Air One in 2008, for a brief experience, he worked as “Vice President Italy sales” and as “Vice President Asia Pacific” where he was responsible for all the Alitalia operations in the area. After the Alitalia and AirOne (2009) merge, Mr. Tucci has been appointed as “Vice President Alliances and Commercial agreements”. In this role he developed the alliance and partnership strategy to complement the Italian carrier’s network.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Victoria Moores

European Editor/Bureau Chief, Air Transport World

Victoria Moores joined Air Transport World as our London-based European Editor/Bureau Chief on 18 June 2012. Victoria has nearly 20 years’ aviation industry experience, spanning airline ground operations, analytical, journalism and communications roles.

Victoria began her aviation career in 1997, working in airline ground operations in the UK and Belgium for British Midland International. She returned to the UK in late 2001 and took on the role of operations analyst for Bombardier Flexjet Europe, gaining experience in the business aviation sector.

In 2003, she joined Reed Business Information as an aviation journalist for its Flightglobal titles. After six years writing for newswire Air Transport Intelligence, Victoria became Features Editor of Airline Business magazine in spring 2009.

Most recently Victoria was General Manager Communications for the Association of European Airlines (AEA), an industry body which represents the interests of 34 major European network carriers. In this role, she was responsible for directing the association’s media relations strategy.

Victoria holds an Air Transport MSc from Cranfield University and a business degree from The University of Derby.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Tonje Wikstrøm Frislid

Chief Executive Officer, Flyr

Tonje Wikstrøm Frislid has been the company's CEO since April 2021. She came from the position as Director of Coors' business unit for stand-alone services. She also has extensive experience from, inter alia, the UniBuss and Norwegian Air Shuttle organisations. Ms. Wikstrøm Frislid has basis subjects in social economics as well as basis and intermediate subjects in political science from the University of Oslo, as well as a master’s in international communications from Maquaire University in Sydney.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Aidan Mooney

Vice President Consulting, ASM Global Route Development

Aidan has worked in the aviation industry for over 25 years and was previously the director of aviation development at Manchester Airports Group. He has negotiated with airlines from around the globe and is a well-known figure in the aviation industry. Aidan has extensive experience in forecasting, budget planning and management reporting.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Morgan Foulkes

Deputy Director General, ACI Europe

Morgan Foulkes became Deputy Director General of the European Region of Airports Council International (ACI EUROPE) in January 2013. Morgan first joined ACI EUROPE in May 2007 as Director of Policy. In his current role, he leads the team of 5 policy managers and 1 research analyst, covering the full range of topics where EU regulation meets airports operations and wider air transport issues.

Morgan previously worked for UPS where he was Director EU Affairs with the Brussels-based Corporate Public Affairs Office of UPS, with responsibility for EU transport policy, international aviation and social affairs. Before that, Morgan was at the Bank of New York in Brussels and previously a trainee with the European Commission, Directorate General for Transport, Air Transport Policy Unit.

Morgan holds a Diploma in Air and Space Law from the Institute of Air & Space Law at McGill University. During his time at UPS, Morgan chaired the Transport and Energy Committee, of AMCHAM EU in Brussels and was also Member of the Board and Treasurer of the European Express Association (EEA).

Born in Paris, France, Morgan holds both the French and American nationality, he is fluent in English and French with a working knowledge of Dutch. In his spare time he enjoys travelling, cycling, running, scuba diving, theatre and any flight related activity.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Wilken Bellmann

Head of Network, Scheduling and Airline Partnerships, SunExpress

  • Over 10 years in aviation of those 5 with SunExpress
  • Previously worked at Condor in various roles including Revenue Management and Head of Long-Haul Planning and Airline Partnerships
  • Initiating a bigger UK network expansion for SunExpress in 2021 via Routes RFP with flights starting in 2022
  • Now looking how to set that growth strategy to the next level

Participating Talks and Sessions

Marc Fischer

Senior Specialist Network Planning, SunExpress

  • Network Planning Senior Specialist at SunExpress
  • B.A. in Transport Economics, currently studying M.A. in Controlling & Finance
  • Almost 5 years with SunExpress in the network planning department
  • Responsible for capacity dimensioning, network design and connectivity

Participating Talks and Sessions

Neil Slaven

Director of Network and Airports, easyJet

Participating Talks and Sessions

Aage Dünhaupt

Director Communications Airlines, Hotels and Cruises, TUI Group

Aage Dünhaupt joined TUI in March 2018. Within the world's leading tourism group, he was initially responsible for communications for the German TUI fly and its sister airlines in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. In the meantime, the native of Hamburg is also responsible for the tour operator's communication in Germany and coordinates the hotel and cruise companies for the group.

After studying business administration in Kiel and Hamburg, Aage Dünhaupt started in the communications department of the Lufthansa Group, where he was responsible for international communications for many years, for example in London and Dubai or projects such as the Airbus A380 or the introduction of the Premium Economy Class. After a stopover as head of communications at airberlin, he established an aviation association in Brussels - A4E.

When not travelling himself, he lives in Berlin.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Thomas Haagensen

Group Markets and Marketing Director, easyJet

Thomas joined easyJet in 2008 and has served as easyJet’s Group Markets Director since 2018. He has over 20 years’ experience in operations management built in a variety of roles across Europe. Danish, born and educated in Switzerland, Thomas began his career with Tetra Pak working his way up to Regional Manager of the East Med where he developed and succeeded in implementing ambitious growth and profitability improvement plans. Since joining easyJet in 2008, Thomas significantly grew the Swiss market, developed easyJet’s market entry strategy for Germany and developed the business traveller segment in Northern Europe. Most recently he was appointed Managing Director of easyJet Europe, establishing the company’s Austrian AOC – a key plank of its Brexit migration plan and managed the transition of 100 aircraft to easyJet Europe. Thomas holds a degree in Business Administration with a focus on management and marketing from University of Lausanne.

Participating Talks and Sessions

David Casey

Editor-in-Chief, Routes

David is responsible for providing insight to the Routesonline community through the latest breaking news, as well as regular features and analysis on developments and trends within the sector. He previously spent 11 years as a business journalist, which included five as the editor of an award-winning digital news team.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Steven Small

Director of Events, Routes

An economic development and tourism specialist, Steven’s career has focussed on working with destinations supporting inward investment, tourism and economic development initiative.

Roles in inward investment, specifically site selection and project management, led Steven to the Northwest Regional Development Agency, where he developed a grant to help support regional airports' route development strategies.

As a consultant at Ernst and Young, Steven worked on a number of projects for both private and public sector organisations, including supporting the development of the business plan for Bath City Council. Back in Manchester he joined the city’s inward investment agency, MIDAS, helping attract businesses to the city.

From here, he moved to Marketing Manchester working on a variety of projects including funding packages for Manchester Central - the city’s main convention venue and the new National Football Museum, as well as delivering the route development fund for Manchester Airport. Steven then took on the role of Head of Business Tourism for Visit Manchester, working to attract major new events and conferences to the city.

Steven moved back to his home town of Liverpool as Head of Tourism, working with public and private stakeholders to develop a long term strategy to maximise the explosion of the visitor economy, since the European Capital of Culture in 2008, and ensure the city region continues to improve its offer and grow sustainably.

A move to UBM in February 2017 brought Steven back to route development. As Brand Director, Steven leads a team in the development and delivery of Routes - a portfolio of global events providing a platform for the route development community to negotiate new air services.

A father of two, Steven is a supporter of Everton football club and lives in a village in North Cheshire.

Participating Talks and Sessions

David Stroud

Managing Director, ASM Global Route Development

David has over 20 years’ experience in the aviation industry and has played a crucial part in developing the ASM business. He joined ASM in 1998 and later transferred to Routes, ASM’s sister company. Following UBM’s purchase of ASM and Routes in 2010, David led the integration of the two companies into the new organisation. He decided to return to ASM in 2013 to help shape ASM’s future direction. David previously worked for BAE Systems, Manchester Airport and London City Airport.

Participating Talks and Sessions

Abraham Foss

CEO, Avinor

Participating Talks and Sessions

Lena Wennberg

Sustainability and Environmental Manager, Swedavia

Lena Wennberg has been the Head of Sustainable Development department within Swedavia AB (at group level) since 2021 and her focus area is the transformation of aviation with less climate impact. Previously Lena was head of Environmental Strategy within Swedavia and led the company’s work towards zero emission of fossil carbon dioxide for airport activities.  Swedavia owns, operates and improves 10 airports. Swedavia (represented by Lena) is also one of the founders of Fossil Free Aviation 2045, together with the Swedish aviation industry. Fossil Free Aviation 2045 is an innovation cluster, which aims to support the aviation industry to reach the climate goals.  Swedavia is a State-owned company with roughly 2,200 employees. Before joining Swedavia Lena worked at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport as an Environment Manager. Lena has a career as environment specialist at WSP and researcher at Swedish Environmental Institute. Lena has a master’s degree in Aquatic biology and a master’s degree in Ecotoxicology.

Participating Talks and Sessions