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2023-06-04

Airport Show Accelerates Aviation Industry

The 22nd edition of the Airport Show in Dubai, the world’s largest annual airport event, concluded on a positive note, with exhibitors and participants expressing extreme satisfaction at the overwhelming response received from other stakeholders and participants. The event was held during a time of full recovery in the global aviation industry, led by the Middle East, especially the UAE. The successful event is expected to lead to future collaborations and stronger business relationships between the participating entities.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group inaugurated the annual show, which took place from May 9 to 11.

Products and services from over 150 exhibitors were on display. There were 5,000 attendees from over 60 countries. The show was held with the theme, ‘Together in Innovating Future Sustainable Airports.’

Exhibitors from the U.S., Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Turkey, Netherlands, China, Belgium, Korea and Sweden and several other coun-tries including the host, UAE, showcased products and technologies to make the aviation industry safe and sustainable, enhance efficien-cy and passenger experience with the expected aviation industry growth.

Also opened were Airport Security Middle East, ATC Forum, the Global Airport Leaders’ Forum (GALF) and Women in Aviation Confer-ence, where global experts and industry leaders discussed the state of the industry, trends and the future of travel, airport security, tech-nology disruption, passenger experience and sustainability.

Perfect Timing

Sheikh Ahmed described the show as a crucial event timed perfectly to accelerate the global aviation industry recovery.

Ever since Sheikh Ahmed inaugurated the show, there was continuous flow of quality visitors, including trade participants and industry stakeholders and the venue saw the footprint of more than 5,000 visitors.

The event was held at a time when massive expansion of airport terminals in the Middle East is on the anvil and the airports are gearing up to handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040 with the airports capacity expansions costing an investment of US $151 billion.

Abu Dhabi is reportedly spending US$3 billion to open the new terminal and Dubai is said to be restarting the expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport.

Sheikh Ahmed said: “The construction of new airports and expansion and upgrading of existing facilities has gained pace to ensure air-ports meet the future demand as well as the needs and expectations of travellers.”

GALF Milestone

GALF celebrated its milestone 10th edition with positive news that the Middle East was leading the aviation recovery and very soon Du-bai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia would achieve 100 per cent recovery, as affirmed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

IATA’s Regional Director, Middle East and Africa, Kashif Khalid, said aviation industry recovery was on track with a strong start to 2023.

“The global aviation industry is almost close to pre-pandemic level of 2019 numbers. Traffic is at approximately 88 per cent of 2019 num-bers. This means that we are almost at the pre-pandemic levels, and with the opening of China recently, we can expect to see the pre-2019 levels within the next few months,” he said at GALF.

He also noted: “Full recovery in passenger traffic in the Middle East is expected in 2024 and will grow at 4.2 per cent annually through 2040.”

Omar Bin Ghaleb, Deputy Director General of UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), reaffirmed the UAE leadership’s vision to cre-ate a world-class aviation ecosystem that embraces cutting-edge technology, fosters innovation, promotes sustainability and delivers an exceptional customer experience.

Ibrahim Ahli, Deputy CEO of Dubai Air Navigation Services (DANS), listed the challenges faced by the aviation industry and said the UAE had overcome the challenges and become the hub of aviation.

Circular Economy

Noaman Alsaleh, Acting Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, DANS, spoke about the role of circular economy in air traffic man-agement and the aviation ecosystem.

“The aviation industry has a crucial role to play in transitioning towards a more sustainable future. The circular economy is an economic system that prioritises the use of renewable resources, reduction of waste, and the reuse of materials. By adopting circular economy principles, the aviation industry can reduce its environmental impact and create new economic opportunities.”

Technology giant Honeywell used the Airport Show venue to launch its next generation docking system ‘Honeywell Navitas Smart Visual Docking’ which helps pilots via signals to see the aircraft docking and come to the airport gate safely.

Airport Show, in partnership with DNATA, also presented the Sustainable Apron featuring electric/hybrid Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and Ground Handling Equipment (GHE) manufacturers.

Robert Powell, Vice President, Technical Services, DNATA, said: “We could share our insights and plans with our partners to improve environmental efficiency across the industry.”

Positive Response

Exhibitors and participants expressed extreme satisfaction.

Philippe Martinet, Managing Director of Groupe ADP Airport Services Central Asia, Middle-East & Africa, said: “For Groupe ADP, the show was an opportunity to present in detail our new service offers to the industry.” Siemens presented its sustainable solutions at the Airport Show.

Michael Schneider, CEO of Siemens Logistics, said: “For Siemens Logistics, the key to sustainability lies in life-time considerations for equipment paired with automation, and digitalisation. Baggage 360, our digital solution, considerably increases the efficiency of existing operations and eco-systems. It provides airports/customers with forecasting and optimisation functions allowing them to plan operations well in advance.”

Thanos Deriziotis, Middle East Aviation Director of Egis, said: “The event was significant in supporting the airport industry. We were happy to see more of our clients and business partners coming back.”

NAFFCO showcased its complete ATM automation and ATC product portfolio as new offering together with Green field airport ATC/ATM consultancy.

Ketan Sethi, Director Aviation of NAFFCO said: “We enhanced our product offer by launching the ATM automation and ATC products total solution in addition to our existing product range of Runway maintenance vehicles, Passenger boarding and Baggage handling solu-tions.”

EchoGate Solution

ITW GSE displayed its Dubbed EchoGate solution.

Helle Krogh Petersen, Head of Marketing at ITW GSE, said that the Dubbed EchoGate solution is a successful technology implemented across many airports including Dubai airport.

EcoGate enables airports to upgrade or add new gate equipment without having to install expensive new power infrastructure.

Fares Bou Daher, Business Development Manager, Airport Solutions at Bayanat Engineering, said many clients visited their pavilion and had discussions on possible collaborations.

Benjamin Violet, Regional Sales Manager for Middle East and Africa at ITW GSE, said the aviation industry’s sharp environmental focus needs equipment with lower energy consumption. He said, “We have played a key part supplying the zero emission battery driven 7400 eGPU since 2018.”

Jurek Grzeszek, Director of Sales and Services TLD MEAI, an Alvest Group company specialising in designing and manufacturing GSE at its nine factories, said TLD continues to innovate with Electric Drivelines allowing GSE to adapt to airport infrastructure.

Erik Velderman, CEO, TKH Airport Solutions, said the company has been seeing a growing interest from the Middle East region for sustain-able innovations.

The Airport Show, organised by RX Global, was supported by Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects, Dubai Airports and DNATA, and sponsored by ADB Safegate, Smiths Detection and HADID International Services.

23rd Airport Show

The 23rd Airport Show will bring together leading airport suppliers and services providers, as well as aviation leaders and regional deci-sion-makers to showcase the latest innovations and technologies in the industry under the theme “Sustainability and Innovation.” With its co-located events ATC Forum, Airport Security Middle East, and the Global Airport Leaders’ Forum, the three-day event will host exhibi-tors from all over the world from May 14–16, 2024 .

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