Airport Show, which concluded Wednesday after a three-day run at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC), climbed another step in its journey of success and broke all records in its 19 years history in terms of occupied exhibition space, number of country pavilions, exhibitors, hosted buyers and visitors.
The world’s biggest airport industry event had an impressive participation by 375 exhibitors from 60 countries who showcased over 50 new technologies and innovative products at the B2B platform to a record 7500 participants and visitors. It had a record participation of 211 Hosted Buyers from 30 countries, up from last year’s 180.
Next year’s edition will be bigger by 1,000 square meters exhibition space which has been added to this edition’s 15,000 square meters. Three new co-located events have been added for the next year edition: Ground Handling, GSE and Air Cargo. Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF), Aviation Security and Air Traffic Control (ATC) Forum will continue its journey of success in the 2020 edition.
Reed Exhibitions Middle East, the organizers of Airport Show, said this year’s much-anticipated show was a stupendous success taking into account different parameters, including the increased number of deals and strategic alliances signed between the participating companies and hosted buyers. The participants appreciated the aviation industry’s growth in the UAE, particularly in Dubai which has remained the most-successful aviation business model taking into account its unblemished track record of management of airports and their continued growth and expansion.
His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, who officially opened the Show, highlighted the importance of the aviation industry’s role in boosting the GDP growth and appreciated the impressive growth achieved by the industry.
“Air travel is set to boom further across the world. Airports are growing in size and prominence as the cities compete to be preferred hubs for the tech-savvy travelers. The air transport sector is now worth a U$2.7 trillion in global economic activity, carrying more than four billion passengers and 62 million tonnes of freight each year,” Sheikh Ahmed added.
“A good way of learning from each other’s experiences and exploring the new technology and innovations is visiting trade exhibitions like Airport Show that the emirate has been hosting as part of its commitment to offer the industry a bouquet of latest technology products,” Sheikh Ahmed concluded.
This year’s sponsors included DACO, emaratech, ASGC, Tytek, DTP, Smiths Detection, Skyguide, Smartworld and Thales. Tytek showcased its next generation trauma response system and medical products, and a customized system that will help the authorities to act quickly for life-saving to visitors until the emergency services can gain access.
For the 2020 edition, Portugal and The Netherlands have confirmed their participation as the Country Pavilions. This will be in addition to France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Denmark, China, US and Canada which will continue their participation with country pavilions. The Innovative Trail has turned out to be a huge success with the participation of 25 companies who showcased innovative products and technologies.
The new conferences on Ground Handling, GSE and Air Cargo have been added to the calendar of events taking into account the sweeping changes in this vital sector of the aviation industry, especially in the Middle East. The organizers are expecting the number of delegates to conferences to rise significantly to more than 1,000.
This year’s co-located event like Women in Aviation (WIA) General Assembly and CAPA Middle East Africa Aviation Summit, attracted wider participation from officials, experts and representatives from global aviation companies. The conference was a major crowd pullers with participants actively debating the issues under the spotlight. This year’s co-located events discussed the benefits that disruptive technologies like AI, blockchain, IoT and Augmented Reality are providing to the airport industry and the challenges of the exponential increase in air traffic around the world, especially in the Middle East.
