Air Show to see 10% growth this year |
|
Share With Members!
Text Size 
The Dubai Air Show 2009 will show a 10 per cent growth in the number of exhibitors and trade visitors as well as a 30 per cent increase in regional exhibitors, according to the organisers.
"Last air show we had 860 exhibitors and 45,000 trade visitors. We forecast a 10 per cent growth on those figures for the Dubai Air Show 2009, which is to be held between November 15 and 19. So despite the economic climate, we are still growing at the Dubai Air Show," Allison Weller, Director of Fair & Exhibitors Aerospace, told Emirates Business.
She said the big Middle East exhibitors at the Dubai Air Show would be Mubadala, Dubai Airports, Dubai Aerospace Entreprise, Abu Dhabi Airport Company, Dubai World Central and some smaller companies in the region. "Since the Dubai Air Show first started we relied on international companies to be our exhibitors. Now it is different - 30 per cent of the exhibitors are from the Middle East, representing aerospace companies and airport cities."
This year, the air show organisers are forecasting about 900 exhibitors and 50,000 visitors based on current bookings and prospective bookings until the show date in November. Weller said: "In the terms of other growth and forecast, we are building a fourth hall, the Emirates Hall, to accommodate that growth. This will give us an additional 7,000 square metres of exhibition space, taking the entire site to overall 325,513 sqm."
The new space is sponsored by Emirates, which will be the key exhibitor in the hall. Other large exhibitors would be EADS, Lufthansa and Dubai Airports. Weller said: "We have increased the chalets by 11 units - another increase to cope with the extra inquires and bookings."
When asked about the impact of the financial crisis on the air show, Weller said: "I wish I could say that it hadn't [impacted the show] but unfortunately we are not immune. We have not seen as many customers come back as we had in the past. A lot of companies, because of the economic situation, have possibly reduced their participation. So when the numbers are there, they may not have come as large as they once had. They have not put on all the additionals such as the sponsorships and the other expenditure on the show. We have taken our cancellations but the show is still quite young. We are 20 years old this year."
She said: "This will be the 11th show and we are still in quite a steep growth curve in one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world. But we are not growing as fast and as big as we originally forecast because the recession hit us. But it is not catastrophic; we still have a big air show and it is still going to be bigger than the last one. We have 150 new customers to the region so far. I expect that number to increase by mid-November. Basically we are very fortunate that here in the Middle East aviation is a growing market."
Recent shows have witnessed a growth in indigenous exhibitors. "We get an indigenous exhibitor growth from all the GCC countries and the surrounding region and we also attract a lot of international exhibitors as they start to look to the Middle East as a growth path for their market. They might be quite successful in their own markets and now they are looking overseas, and of course the Middle East is a big attraction," said Weller.
The major manufacturers - Airbus and Boeing - will be there, as will business aviation manufacturers such as Gulfstream and Embraer. The new exhibitor this year would be Eurofighter, which will display a full-scale replica of the static park of the jet. Airbus will show a full-scale cabin replica of the A350, the new wide-body aircraft.
Yet another first would be the full-scale mock up of Eurocopter EC 175, a 16-seat civilian helicopter. Aerion will exhibit a mock-up of the supersonic business jet. Weller said: "It is still in the development stage, but it is interesting, that we could move business aviation into the supersonic stage."
Other major exhibitors include Lufthansa, Lockheed Martin from the military side, and Bombardier from Canada. "We are bringing exhibitors from 39 countries and we expect to growth this number before the show.
"At the Paris Air Show in July, most of the major orders were made by Middle East carriers. This bodes well for the Dubai Air Show in November. At the 2007 show, we closed with a $155 billion (Dh569bn) order book, a world record. I'm hoping we will break that record this year."
By Nina Varghese
© Emirates Business 24/7 2009
x
DISCLAIMER
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Zawya is a distributor (and not a publisher) of content supplied by third parties and subscribers. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by those third parties, including information providers, subscribers or other users of the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of the Company. The Company neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on the Service by anyone other than authorized Service employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. The Company is not responsible for any infringement of intellectual property rights or breach of any applicable law or regulation, including regulation in relation to financial services or the distribution of financial products, defamation, data protection, telecommunications (including regulations relating to excessive use, spamming or other abusive activities) or obscene, offensive or illegal content). Under no circumstances will the Company be liable for any loss or damage caused by a member's reliance on information obtained through the Service. It is the responsibility of member to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through the Service. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.
Read the full Member Agreement
http://www.zawya.com/legal/NewsLetter.cfm?name=disclaimer
Community Comments (0) - 
Comment on this article 
Comment on this article
The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect Zawya. Read our Comment Policy.
Loading ...
Zawya Comment Policy:
-
Zawya encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You agree that when you add content to this discussion your comments will not:
1.1 Contain any material which is libelous or defamatory of any person, is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or causes damage to the reputation of any person or organisation.
1.2 Promote sexually explicit material, violence, discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age or any illegal activity.
1.3 Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
1.4 Be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
1.5 Be used to impersonate any person, to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person, or be likely to deceive any person.
1.6 Give the impression that they represent Zawya.
1.7 Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse. - The content posted on www.zawya.com is created by members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of Zawya. Zawya reserves the right to review all comments prior to posting and edit or delete any contribution, but Zawya is not responsible for and can not be held liable for any content posted by members of the public on www.zawya.com.
- Zawya is not responsible for the availability or content of any third party sites that are accessible through www.zawya.com. Any links to third party websites from www.zawya.com do not amount to any endorsement of that site by Zawya and any use of that site by you is at your own risk.
- By submitting your comment, you hereby give Zawya the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comments worldwide, in perpetuity.
Loading ...Community Buzz
Stories
Companies
Most viewed companies by Community in the last 24 hrs
| Company Name | Country | Industry |
| Consolidated Contractors Company | Overseas | Construction and Design |
| Zuhair Fayez Partnership Consultants | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Saudi Binladin Group | Saudi Arabia | Construction and Design |
| Saudi Electricity Company | Saudi Arabia | Electric Utilities |
| Roads and Transport Authority - Dubai | UAE | Regulatory and Administrative Bodies |
| Barwa Real Estate Company | Qatar | Landlords and Developers |
| Mubadala Development Company | UAE | Investment Firms and Funds |
| Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company | UAE | Oil |
| Ministry of Health - Saudi Arabia | Saudi Arabia | Ministries and Municipalities |
| Dubai Electricity and Water Authority | UAE | Electric Utilities |
Projects
Most viewed projects by Community in the last 24 hrs
| Project Name | Country | Sector |
| ENEC - Nuclear Power Plant | UAE | Power and Water |
| Abu Dhabi DOT - Abu Dhabi Metro | UAE | Infrastructure |
| Takreer - Ruwais Refinery Expansion | UAE | Oil and Gas |
| Abu Dhabi Ports Company - Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) | UAE | Infrastructure |
| Aramco/Dow Chemical - Ras Tanura Integrated Refinery and Petrochemicals Complex | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| SATORP - Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical Complex | Saudi Arabia | Oil and Gas |
| Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) - Smelter Complex - Phase 1 | UAE | Industry |
| Dubai Racing Club - Meydan City - Meydan Racecourse | UAE | Real Estate |
| Dubai RTA - Dubai Metro | UAE | Infrastructure |
| IGD - Gasco - Habshan 5 Gas Processing Plant | UAE | Oil and Gas |