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Dubai is set to overtake Munich as the home of the world's largest international airport industry exhibition.
As the three-day Airport Build and Supply Exhibition drew towards a close, organisers Streamline Marketing Group said the event's 25 per cent growth this year will be followed by more major expansion in 2007, making it the industry's largest.
At least 70 more airport suppliers from around the world are expected to boost next year's overall exhibitor line-up to more than 450, allowing the Dubai event to climb above Munich's Inter Airport Europe.
The show's progression mirrors the huge volume of airport development and expansion currently taking place across the Middle East, Africa and the subcontinent, estimated to be worth more than $40 billion, half of this in the UAE alone. Next year's Airport Show in Dubai will expand again to feature four new national pavilions for companies from Denmark, Finland, India and Switzerland, while other new sections will concentrate on the key areas of ground handling and airport logistics.
"Dubai is becoming a major logistics hub, particularly with the development of a logistics city as part of the new $ 8.1 billion Dubai World Central International Airport," said Laith Kubba, director of Streamline Marketing Group. "We have tremendous additional interest from companies who are eager to capitalise on the growth of airport logistics related business in Dubai, and the region as a whole. As a result we are able to confirm now that there will be a specialist airport logistics pavilion at next year's Airport Show.
"At the same time, as a result of strong interest from German, French and British companies in particular, we can also confirm that we will have a dedicated ground handling pavilion next year. There is a huge and growing demand in this part of the world for ground handling equipment, and airport management companies like DNATA will welcome this development."
In addition to attracting a record number of 374 exhibitors from around the world this week, the Airport Show was comfortably on course to surpass last year's total of 2,900 trade visitors over the three days, with 2,400 visitors passing through the exhibition halls on the first two days alone.
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