The 10th edition of the annual Airport Show entered the second day Monday in Dubai, a member of the seven-strong federation United Arab Emirates (UAE), bringing together more than 220 exhibitors from 34 countries or regions, including 10 from China.
Participants in the three-day exhibition, considered as the region's premier event on the global airport industry, increased by 6 percent from the previous year, according to organizers.
For the first time, China showed its presence through a national pavilion at the show.
Andy Chen, a technical engineer from the Dongguan Yongqiang Vehicles Manufacturing Co. Ltd., said it was also the first time in Dubai.
The company, a joint corporation with a foreign firm, was the first to produce fire-fighting vehicles of the higher standard in China and it owns the largest fire-fighting manufacturing plant in Asia.
"Our major clients currently are the airports in Shanghai and Hangzhou, so we want to expand to the Middle East now," Chen told Xinhua at his company's stand. The firm is situated in Dongguan, a city north of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
Most exhibitors targeted the growing market in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia, where currently 39 airports are either under construction, expansion or renovation. Reed Exhibitions in Dubai, which organizes the Airport Show, estimates that business opportunities in the airport equipment, security and refurbishing sectors are worth 64 billion U.S. dollars.
Due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland which occurred in mid- April, airports in many European countries were closed, most of them until April 21 after the governments decided one by one to issue a total airspace closure due to security reasons, fearing that the volcano ash might damage aircraft engines.
Giovanni Bisignani, director general of International Air Transport Association (IATA), said the Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than 1.7 billion dollars for the six days.
Airport companies exhibiting from Europe are still a bit under shock of the unexpected closure, but at the same time happy that no panic among grounded passengers occurred or any accident happened.
"At Munich Airport, our high standards of security was guaranteed at all times," said Franz Sammueller, manager for Traffic and Infrastructure Planning at Munich airport, the second busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic (34.73 million in 2008), following Frankfurt Airport.
"The media focused on the airlines, but in fact we, the airports, were the main victims of the closure of the airspace," he added.
Lin Huawu, a sales manager at Shenghuang Aircraft Ground Equipment Co. Ltd. from Shanghai, focuses now on new markets in the Gulf region.
"We produce all kinds of vehicles used at airport from loaders, container trailers and luggage trailers. We have no clients in Dubai or the Gulf countries yet, but we hope that through the fair, ground handling firms will get a taste of our portfolio and buy products Made in China," he said.
