The Airport Show Dubai opened today (May 7) at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) with over 350 exhibitors from 60 countries participating.

The show, which was inaugurated by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, expects to see over 7,500 aviation industry professionals attend over the next three days.

The 18th edition of Airport Show features two new co-located events, Air Traffic Control Forum, Airport Security Middle East, in addition to CAPA-Centre of Aviation Global Airport Leaders Forum (GALF) and Women in Aviation.

In his keynote address, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority director general Mohammed Abdullah Ahli said: “Our participation in the Show is in line with our objectives of benefiting from the latest knowledge and expertise along with the best practices in managing air traffic growth.”

The event opens over 15,000-sq-m of space across three halls of the DICEC and will have a couple of records to boot: highest number of exhibitors, hosted buyers and participants expected.

For the first time this year, the three days of exhibition and knowledge sharing will also see the launch of the Innovation Awards, with winners selected from a global pool of submissions and industry jury.

This year’s event is also hosting its largest number of buyers ever, with 190 buyers attending from 34 countries, representing 75 airports, ground handling, police, immigration, customs, air traffic control and aviation authorities, it added.

Daniyal Qureshi, group exhibition director at Reed Exhibitions Middle East - organisers of the trade show, said: “The event has everything related to airports under one roof, with a focus on cutting-edge technology and new-age innovation and knowledge-sharing as aviation infrastructure becomes totally business-oriented.”

“There are presently 1,953 airports in 176 countries – and their count is increasing as the number of flyers multiplies each year. Airlines are forecast to carry 7.8 billion passengers in 2036 and we want to be sure we are providing the right platform for the industry to discuss the most sustainable and innovative ways to meet this demand,” he said.

Reed Exhibitions has expanded the show’s global appeal by adding exclusive add-on forums like Global Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF), Women in Aviation (WIA), Air Traffic Control (ATC) Forum and Airport Security Middle East – the last two being this year’s new additions.

Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), Dubai Airports, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) and dnata are the key supporters for the show, while Dubai Police and Dubai Customs are supporting Airport Security Middle East and ATC Forum is supported by Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans) and GAL ANS, in addition to the four key supporters.

GALF, organised by Capa, continues to attract wider industry participation as airports remain on the cutting-edge of business with management’s requiring equally sophisticated skills to meet increasing competition.

The ATC Forum is attempting at promoting safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic. The spiralling air traffic volumes have enlarged the role and responsibilities of ATCs to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve performance and safety. Over 100,000 flights take off and land every day across the world. In 2017, 36.8 million flights were operated worldwide. The ICAO had projected that the UAE airports will have to handle 1.62 million aircraft movements by 2030.

Global interest in the Middle East aviation has remained strong given the excellent growth record.  According to International Air Transport Association (IATA) global passenger traffic results for 2016 Middle East carriers had the strongest regional annual traffic growth for the fifth year in a row at 11.8 per cent compared with the global average of 6.3 per cent. - TradeArabia News Service