inter airport Europe 2013 draws to a close

The 19th International Exhibition for Airport Equipment, Technology, Design & Services ended today. During the four exhibition days, a total of 640 exhibitors from 37 countries presented the latest equipment and systems available, whether for terminal, terminal-adjoining facilities, runway, apron or hangar. With a record floor space of 28,300m2 this year’s inter airport Europe was bigger than ever. A total of 11,900 trade visitors from 110 countries came to the world’s leading exhibition for the airport industry to find out about the latest technical trends and invest in new airport equipment.

“The mood was buoyant throughout the exhibition and exhibiting companies told us about a large number of new contacts and positive business. It is clear that within the airport industry there is now increased awareness that airports need to remain focussed on long-term plans in order to be prepared when passenger and freight growth picks up again on a larger scale, also in Europe or the USA,” explains Nicola Hamann, Exhibition Director inter airport Europe, on behalf of the organisers, Mack Brooks Exhibitions.

“We would like to thank all participants for once again making inter airport Europe the most successful international marketplace for the entire airport industry. A special thanks goes to the exhibitors and visitors in the outdoor area, who continued doing business as usual despite the changing weather conditions”, says Nicola Hamann.

Important technological trends at the show were further optimisation of the processes at airports, environmental sustainability and a higher degree of automation for aircraft, passenger and cargo handling. Computer tomography scanners replace the naked scanner, baggage carousels run more smoothly and thus use less energy, snow sweepers are multi-functional and can also be used for cutting grass in the summer, and automatic check-in counters are even more flexible, allowing baggage-drop many hours before the flight.

These and many other new products were showcased at inter airport Europe 2013. Four exhibiting companies received the inter airport Europe Award for their innovations: Evans Airport Solutions from the Netherlands received an award for their new manual and hybrid self-service check-in counter. Opscom Systems from Denmark was awarded the prize for a security management system with a focus on recording special occurrences. Turkish company Denge received the award for a disabled passenger vehicle designed to service aircraft of almost all sizes, and the Danish company Crisplant-Beumer was awarded a prize for an innovative baggage-loader that reduces heavy manual lifting of bags on a large scale.

inter airport Europe 2013 was once again a highly international event. Two thirds of the exhibitors and visitors were from outside Germany. The most important exhibitor countries after Germany were the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The most important regions where the visitors came from were Europe, Central and South East Asia as well as the Middle East.

For the global active airport community, Mack Brooks Exhibitions offers a series of further inter airport events: Next year, inter airport China will take place from 15 – 17 October 2014 at the China International Exhibition Centre in Beijing. inter airport South East Asia will take place from 18-20 March 2015 at Singapore Expo in Singapore.

The next inter airport Europe, the 20th anniversary show will take place from 6-9 October 2015 at the Munich Trade Fair Centre in Germany.