The Airport Show being held between 10 and 12 May this year will again be the world’s largest annual airport gathering. We looked forward with organiser Reed Exhibitions to the big event
This, the 15th Airport Show – managed by Reed Exhibitions – will take place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. According to Reed, more than 270 exhibitors from 30 countries will be displaying their wares, while the events company also expects to welcome 7,000 aviation professionals, more than 100 regional aviation authorities, 300 forum delegates and over 30 airport leaders and experts.
Daniyal Qureshi, group exhibition director for Reed Exhibitions, explains that last year’s event “further established Airport Show as the world’s largest annual airport exhibition. The huge interest in the region’s aviation industry continues and Airport Show serves as the platform for international companies to support the region’s goal to become the world’s travel hub by 2015.”
He continues: “Airport Show continues to serve as the sourcing platform of aviation stakeholders and key decision-makers for over US$100 billion worth of mega-airport projects in the Middle East, Africa and the South Asia region. Plus, AirportConnect, the highly-acclaimed hosted buyers programme, will bring over 100 representatives from 45 authorities and 25 countries to the show this year.”
Accompanying the core exhibition, the co-located Travel Catering Expo (TCE) and Global Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF) have been designed to offer even more networking and learning opportunities this year. Travel Catering Expo, for example, has been established as the region’s largest dedicated platform for the travel catering industry and will host over 30 buyers from 15 countries.
The Global Airport Leaders’ Forum, meanwhile, will – explains Qureshi – “help airport, policy, business and technology leaders gain exclusive strategic insights into the perspective of international airport leaders and help them benchmark to ensure that their organisation has a leading-edge approach in place.
“GALF will help them expand their professional knowledge base and find what it takes to be the world’s top-ranking airport; at GALF, they will be able to network with more than 30 international aviation speakers and over 300 aviation delegates from around the globe,” he adds.
VIP ATTENDANCE
The Airport Show not only attracts middle management and operational heads of regional airports, who attend the event to source products for their own gateways’ development, but also a large number of other VIPs – including director generals, CEOs and presidents of airports, civil aviation bodies and airlines. These industry leaders attend to meet their peers and key global business partners, as well as to view the latest technologies on display from around the world, Qureshi notes.
And, of course the media will be out in force again. Year-on-year, the event welcomes between 200 and 300 media personnel, whose support – Qureshi remarks – firms up the event’s significance in the aviation industry. Executive and VIP Aviation International, sister magazine to Airside International, is one of the media partners of the event.
Over the years, the show has had the effect of boosting the local aviation industry, while this year’s exhibition will no doubt also benefit from the continuing expansion of the region’s aviation business. “The Middle East is among the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world today – whether you look at it from the perspectives of airport development, airline growth or passenger growth,” Qureshi says.
“As the most important government-endorsed event for airports in the region, Airport Show plays a key role in showcasing the most advanced aviation equipment from around the world, enabling regional aviation authorities to fulfil their expansion, modernisation and passenger safety and satisfaction objectives,” he concludes.
