After the partial lifting of EU airspace, the first aircraft landed in Munich and Frankfurt bringing overseas exhibitors and visitors to 'bauma 2010,' one of the world´s leading trade fairs for construction and building materials.

According to event organisers Messe München, the trade fair began on Tuesday as per schedule at 9.30am (local time) despite the flight disruptions. They said tour groups were brought in by special coaches direct from the airports to the exhibition centre and bauma.

With more flights on the way from Asia, India and America, the visitor numbers are likely to surge in the coming days.

"Further exhibitors and visitors from China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Egypt, Canada and the United States are currently making their way to Germany," they informed.

Messe München´s representative in Turkey had organised seven coaches to bring exhibitors from Turkey to Munich. They arrived this morning.
 
The stands of those exhibitors´ who got stranded in airports and could not make it in time on the first day of the fair were staffed temporarily by Messe München with trained personnel.

"At midday on Tuesday, 80 of the 3,150 registered exhibition stands were not staffed. By midday today around one third of this number were able to be staffed by the exhibitors´ own personnel," said a senior official.

Several of the xhibitors who were affected by the restrictions on international flights have announced that they will be arriving in Munich in the next few hours, said Klaus Dittrich, chairman and CEO of Messe München.
 
"Thanks to the concerted effort by Messe München and its international sales and association partners the reaction to the situation was very quick," he remarked.

"We are expecting that in the course of the next two days business at the trade fair can continue without restrictions for the most part. We are offering delayed exhibitors support such as help with any equipment they still need for their stands," he added.

"The weekend of bauma has always traditionally been the one with highest visitor attendance. We are expecting that as flights resume more international visitors will arrive in the second half of bauma," he added.

Dittrich pointed out that bauma continues as planned at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre. With 555,000 square metres of fully booked exhibition space, bauma 2010 is the biggest trade fair in the world dedicated to display of the latest products from the international construction, building-materials and mining machinery sectors.

"At the last event in 2007, which took place during a boom period in the building industry worldwide, we counted over 500,000 visitors, of which 345,000 came from Germany, and 155,000 from abroad."

"In that group of non-German visitors, 78 percent came from other European countries, 11 percent from Asia, 7 percent from America, 2 percent from Africa and 2 percent from Australia and Oceania, he added..-TradeArabia News Service