This paper aims to assess the uniqueness of stakeholder engagement activities in air route development (ARD) and identify what leadership and governance attributes are more relevant in the four critical stages of ARD. Our context is the Australian aviation market, analysing the differences in this process when developing routes to airports of different sizes. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used as the primary data collection tool. Twenty-two ARD experts from airports, airlines, and tourism authorities (TAs) shared their views on ARD and stakeholder engagement. Our results are presented using the four stages of ARD (i.e., development of route objectives, market research, route development activities, and route implementation) and key leadership and governance attributes identified in each of these stages. In a tourism sector heavily dependent on air transport, where Australian airports operate under a light-handed regime with little competition among major airports, we have identified strong partnerships between the involved stakeholders. While the airport often leads the ARD process, airports of different sizes engage differently. TAs play a significant role, particularly for regional and emerging airports. The results of this study analyse the ARD procedures and strategies used by airports, airlines, and TAs.