Airport Show expected to record over 15 per cent growth in 2016 edition

The 16th edition of Airport Show will be held in Dubai from May 9 to 11 next year, bringing together more than 300 exhibitors from over 30 countries under one roof to showcase their innovative and game-changing products offered to key decision-makers across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) aviation industry, which is witnessing a massive growth..  

Supported by Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), Dubai Airports and dnata, the Airport Show-2016 will have Travel Catering Expo (TCE) and Global Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF) as the co-located events for the third and fourth consecutive year, respectively.

The three-in-one knowledge and technology sharing platform will take place under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of DCAA, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group. 

Remarked Sheikh Ahmed: “The Middle East continues its impressive double-digit growth and has embarked on a massive airport expansion and development programme that is having a positive economic impact throughout the region. Airport development continues to play an important role in our strategic plans, creating thousands of new jobs and providing an engine of economic growth vital to the growth of Dubai.”

“The show will provide an invaluable opportunity to view the latest global technologies and best practices and create new opportunities for our industry to collaborate,” he added.  

The iconic B2B show will occupy an exhibition space of 15000 square metres at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC), with larger participation expected by country pavilions from Germany, France, UK, Italy, Switzerland, USA and China. With an expected growth of over 15 per cent, the organizers are confident about the show being a complete sell-out once again. 

Daniyal Qureshi, Group Exhibition Director at Reed Exhibitions Middle East, organizers of Airport Show and co-located events, said: “The Middle East has displayed an unprecedented appetite for aviation growth and regional authorities are putting in place the airport developments necessary to handle the huge surge expected in passenger numbers over the next decade.”

He added: “Combined with massive capacity upgrades regionally in Africa and South Asia, Dubai is ideally positioned to host the world’s leading airport expansion and development event once again. The Airport Show offers a critical link connecting global airport suppliers with the regional buyers and showcases the best the industry has to offer.”

Global interest in the Middle East aviation has remained strong given the excellent growth record. 

According to the World Airport Traffic Report of Airports Council International (ACI-World), the Middle East reported the highest growth rates in the world -10.8 per cent in passenger traffic in 2014 compared with the global average of 5.7 per cent, and 9.2 per cent growth in cargo traffic as against 4.7 per cent global average. 

In Dubai, the planned $32 billion expansion of Al Maktoum International in the recently rebranded Dubai South (earlier known as Dubai World Central) will help accommodate that rapid growth with an ultimate capacity to handle up to 240 million passengers upon completion, remarked Sheikh Ahmed. 

A whopping $441 billion has been invested in airport projects globally in the first half of 2015, according to the mid-year review by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA). It said there are currently 340 new airport projects globally. By end of July, CAPA said it is aware of 2,520 airport construction projects worldwide, a figure that is slightly higher than the one reported in January 2015 (just over 2300). It suggested that there were about 100 airport projects in the Middle East by end-July, with nearly half of them being new airports.