The Emirates Group confirmed that it will have a major presence at next year’s Airport Show in Dubai, which is Asia’s largest airport industry event. The Dubai government-owned group, which includes Emirates Airline, Dnata and Emirates SkyCargo, is the region’s largest aviation and airport ground handling operator.

Emirates Airline and Dnata procurement specialists intend to source new technologies and brief industry suppliers on equipment requirements for their existing operations at Dubai International Airport as well as for their future expansion needs.

Dnata Airport Operations, the premier ground handling agent at Dubai International Airport, handled more than 26 million passengers, over 118 scheduled international airlines and more than 200,000 aircraft movements during the fiscal year April 2005-6.

The Airport Show, which takes place from May 28 -30, 2007 at Airport Expo Dubai, is now in its seventh year and attracts the world’s leading airport and aviation suppliers keen to capitalise on the recent unprecedented growth in the aviation and airport development sectors across the Middle East, India and African region. In Dubai alone, a US$4.1 billion expansion of the existing airport is currently underway, and construction has already begun on the new US$8.2 billion Dubai World Central International Airport in Jebel Ali, which is set to be the world’s largest international airport.

Saeed Mohammed, Senior Vice President of Procurement and Logistics for the Emirates Group, said, ‘We are very excited to be participating in The Airport Show and intend to use the event to source new technologies, explain our future equipment requirements and brief industry suppliers on our procurement policies and how they can do business with us.’

The ground handling equipment and technology that the Emirates Group hopes to source at the show includes equipment for aircraft access, handling, towing, loading, refuelling, power supply, baggage and cargo handling systems and numerous other ground support equipment and services.

Senior procurement officials from the group will give presentations during the event on what their requirements are and how suppliers can do business with them. They will also have designated meeting rooms for pre-scheduled private consultations with exhibitors.

Nick Webb, director of Streamline Marketing Group, said, ‘One of the new features for the Airport Show 2007 will be a dedicated Ground Handling Conference that will cover both market intelligence and topical issues in the world of ground handling. The participation of the Emirates Group, the region’s largest player in aviation and airport ground services, will be of significant interest to the industry.’

In addition to attracting general visitors, the Airport Show team will place particular focus on encouraging ground handling officials from regional airports, ground handling operators and airline operations teams to attend the event.

The Airport Show takes place under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, Chairman and Chief Executive Emirates Airline & Group and Chairman of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.

The event has become well established as a major forum for the selection and pre-qualification of suppliers for airport development projects not only in the Gulf area but also across the Middle East, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and the CIS countries. It attracts a targeted audience of regional Civil Aviation departments, government officials, consultants and contractors behind all the major aviation projects.
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