January 2008January 2008
Industry leaders form council to support inter airport India 2008
A high-level conference to be staged alongside the next inter airport India exhibition is one of the initiatives being pursued by an Advisory Council formed to strengthen links between the event and India's air transport industry. The exhibition and conference will take place in New Delhi's Pragati Maidan Exhibition Centre from 11 to 13 September 2008.
Under the chairmanship of Mr Ajay Prasad, former Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation of the Government of India, and with Dr K Ramalingam, Chairman, Airports Authority of India, serving as co-chairman, the council met for the first time in December 2007 (see picture below). It is formed of representatives of the airport industry in India, airlines, government agencies, leading suppliers and consultants, as well as top managers from the event's organisers.
At its inaugural meeting, the Council nominated a Core Committee to take forward the development of themes for the conference and to undertake its detailed planning. With both domestic and international air traffic in India growing rapidly and major investments planned in the country's air transport infrastructure, topics to be discussed look certain to include airport development and expansion and the technical and equipment issues involved in aircraft and passenger handling in an expanding market.
The eight-member Core Committee, chaired by Dr K Ramalingam, is now developing the final structure of a conference programme that promises to give an unrivalled insight into how India's airport infrastructure plans to respond to the challenges of fast-growing demand for air travel.
Show Director Tom Ho said: "We are very privileged to be benefiting from the experience of the highly placed officials and managers that make up the inter airport India Advisory Council and we are very confident that the Core Committee will devise a conference programme that is informative, timely and thought-provoking. And we are confident that this conference will strengthen the role of inter airport India as the leading forum for showcasing the technology that will support the development of the country's airport industry."
In a separate move, the Airports Authority of India, via its Chairman Dr K Ramalingam, has agreed to provide its non-financial support for inter airport India 2008. The event is already endorsed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Similar backing, a key step in bringing together senior managers, buyers, engineers and government officials from the air transport community, was provided for the successful 2007 event. This saw 142 exhibitors from 18 countries taking part and attracted 2,994 trade visitors from 27 countries.
Reflecting the strong approval of the airport equipment and services industry of that first show in India, inter airport India 2008 has already gained the support of leading European industry associations and trade promotion bodies, notably the German Airport Technology & Equipment (GATE) group, the British Airport Systems & Equipment Association (BASEA) and UBIFRANCE.
The first meeting of the inter airport India Advisory Council in New Delhi on 12 December 2007
(A high-resolution version of this image is available for download from the Press releases section of the inter airport India website: www.interairportindia.com).
Inter airport India is organised by Mack Brooks Exhibitions and its partner in India, InterAds Ltd. Mack Brooks Exhibitions has long-standing expertise in organising trade exhibitions for the airports sector, most notably through its inter airport Europe shows. The next of these takes place in Munich, Germany, in October 2009, the 17th in this series of world-leading events. The company also successfully staged inter airport China events in Beijing in 2004 and 2006, the latter visited by some 3,000 industry professionals. This exhibition returns to Beijing in December 2008.
For more information on inter airport India 2008 contact:
Tom Ho, Exhibition Director
Tel: (+44 1727) 814 400
Fax: (+44 1727) 814 401
Email: india@interairport.com
Or visit the show website: http://www.interairportindia.com/