Reed Exhibitions has confirmed that the new venue for its flagship international aerospace industry event, Asian Aerospace, will be in Hong Kong.
The world's leading organiser of trade and consumer exhibitions will stage the next presentation of Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress from 3-6 September 2007 at the brand new, ultra-modern AsiaWorld-Expo complex, which is adjacent to and integrated with the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).
The move to Hong Kong follows the recent announcements that Asian Aerospace would move from Singapore. The move is in line with Hong Kong's continued expansion of its role as a major international gateway city for China and the greater Asia Pacific region, and the world class comprehensive infrastructure framework that it has developed, including a newly-built exhibition and events centre with cutting edge features. These factors will ensure that exhibitors and visitors to Asian Aerospace in future can continue to enjoy the highest standards of service and facilities possible. The move to a brand new venue and a city with excellent infrastructure facilities will in fact enable customers to experience an enhanced set of service levels at a higher quality without necessarily increasing their cost of participation on a like-for-like basis.
Hong Kong's selection as the new venue for the Asia Pacific region's premier aerospace exhibition, ranked among the top three in the world alongside iconic events at Farnborough and Paris, comes after a series of extensive studies and discussions with customers and various industry stakeholders to provide the choice location to ensure the continued and future success of Asian Aerospace. It will also firmly entrench Asian Aerospace's pre-eminent position as the most important marketplace and balanced platform for the aerospace industry in Asia. The planned increased emphasis of civil and commercial aviation in Asian Aerospace is squarely in line with the emerging industry trends in Asia with its greater demand for commercial and business aircraft, including ancillary equipment and services such as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), especially in markets like China and India.
The move of Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong has been greeted enthusiastically by an array of public and private sector individuals and organisations there, including the Civil Aviation Department, Invest Hong Kong, Airport Authority Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Cathay Pacific Airways, the Aerospace Forum and Hong Kong business community.
Mr Norman Lo, Director-General of Civil Aviation, remarked, "The Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong welcomes the news that Asian Aerospace is moving here. This reflects the strong position of Hong Kong as the aviation hub in the region."
Mr Mike Rowse, Chairman of AsiaWorld-Expo and Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, said, "The addition of Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong's expanding calendar of international trade shows is reaffirmation of our ambition to serve as a regional hub for exhibitions and a base for international and Mainland companies to manage their business operations in Asia. Hong Kong serves as a two-way platform for companies wishing to access the mainland of China, and for Mainland companies to launch themselves to the international marketplace. We are committed to maintaining our attractiveness to attract international trade shows such as Asian Aerospace. We look forward to seeing AsiaWorld-Expo becoming the regular and long-term venue for future Asian Aerospace shows."
Dr David J Pang, Chief Executive Officer of the Airport Authority Hong Kong, said, "HKIA welcomes being chosen as the new venue for the 2007 Asian Aerospace exhibition. The move to HKIA demonstrates once again the importance of Hong Kong as the premier transportation hub of the region and the gateway to Mainland China. HKIA fully supports the exhibition and is destined to help provide participants with an unforgettable airport experience."
Ms Clara Chong, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, said, "I am delighted that Reed Exhibitions has chosen Hong Kong as the host city for the next Asian Aerospace. Whether from Mainland China or around the world, buyers and sellers have discovered that exhibiting in Hong Kong provides an unbeatable platform. With half the world's population within five hours' flying time and the economic powerhouse of Mainland China just across the border, and with superb location, infrastructure, professionalism and experience, this is the perfect place to meet and do business. I am sure all participants will find Hong Kong user-friendly and attractive, both for business and pleasure, and I look forward to welcoming exhibitors and visitors to this prestigious event in 2007."
Commenting on behalf of Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, Mr Alan Wong, General Manager Corporate Communications, said "As the airline of Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific has invested greatly to develop Hong Kong as a global aviation hub and gateway to the Chinese Mainland. Aviation forms a central pillar to Hong Kong's economic prosperity. The relocation of Asian Aerospace to Hong Kong underlines that fact and highlights the huge potential for development of the aviation industry in the city and China as a whole."
"China is fast developing as the world's most dynamic aviation market and, with its own leading position in Asia, the Flight group is pleased to support the region's premier show in making the move onto Chinese soil," said Mr Jim Muttram, publishing director, Flight. "According to our ACAS database, Asia-Pacific already accounts for close to 45% of the world order backlog for jet airliners, with China alone holding close to 20%. And as the whole region continues to grow, Flight will be there supporting the industry with the information tools that it needs to do business."
The choice of the new home for Asian Aerospace comes with a new look show, which will be positioned primarily as a trade event, to be held over four days at the AsiaWorld-Expo complex. The new exhibition complex has drawn many international accolades for the excellent and superior quality of its facilities and its easy access to the airport and city on the extensive and well connected MTR network. The modern attributes of the column free permanent structure will enable to reduce the build up time for exhibitors. This should directly help to lower the cost of participation. Furthermore, there will be improved facilities for conferences at the AsiaWorld-Expo venue. With the static aircraft display area being less than five minutes away, AsiaWorld-Expo serves as a one-stop centre for all Asian Aerospace's customers.
Mr Mike Rusbridge, Chairman of Reed Exhibitions, said: "We are pleased to be able to announce the choice of a new location for Asian Aerospace and delighted to have the extensive support of the public and private sector in Hong Kong. We believe this will be an essential element in providing a platform for our customers to develop and expand their business in the region, where half the world's population lives within a five hour flight radius of this new venue. This move will also provide better future access to the largest market for aircraft development over the next decade."
"The potential of the Chinese market for more and newer commercial aircraft including business jets, as well as aerospace related products and services such as logistics, airport equipment and facilities, ground services, inflight services and entertainment, aircraft interiors, aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul, is mind-boggling. The sheer population size necessitates major procurement for the foreseeable future. Hong Kong is not only the perfect gateway to the Chinese market, it is a highly-connected aviation hub with direct access to other large emerging markets like India, Thailand and the Middle East," added Mr Clive Richardson, Senior Vice President of Reed Exhibitions' Aerospace and Defence Group.
Mr Richardson continued, "A greater focus on the trade element of Asian Aerospace means the overall show will run for four days, instead of the traditional six days, which has included two public days. Our feedback from exhibitors is that they would prefer a trade only focus, so the event will concentrate on this sector. This is our response to an aspect of the event that is so important to our customers in the aerospace sector.
"To this end, there will also be a three-day major international aerospace congress held in conjunction with Asian Aerospace, a static aircraft display, a series of customer demonstration flights, and indoor business and hospitality suites for corporate discussions and negotiations. There would also be a greater emphasis on learning and networking opportunities. More quality, knowledge sharing conferences and seminars working with key strategic partners will be developed. Hence, we have adopted the new expanded name of Asian Aerospace International Expo and Congress.
"We are confident and certain that general public interest in the aerospace industry can be better served by other events in the region, as we concentrate our focus on the business to business event that is very relevant for the aerospace sector.
"The new calendar cycle for the show was designed to help our customers avoid clashes with other traditional events, and also with newer events which are contributing to the proliferation of shows, which the industry has categorically confirmed it wants to avoid.
"We look forward to meeting our existing customers and potential new customers at Asian Aerospace's finale event in Singapore, and to providing them with more details on what they can expect from Asian Aerospace in its new Hong Kong home."
Mr Nicolas Borit, Chief Executive Officer of AsiaWorld-Expo Management Limited, said "We are confident that the complementary resources of Reed Exhibitions' global network and track record as the world's largest exhibition organiser, and Hong Kong's infrastructure and reputation as a major global business city, particularly the purpose built, contemporary world-class AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition venue, will be a powerful combination to secure the future success of Asian Aerospace as Asia's Premier International Event."
Reed Exhibitions will be embarking on a major campaign to update the industry on the specific details for the new Asian Aerospace event in Hong Kong in a series of road shows including familiarisation visits to AsiaWorld-Expo and industry briefings over the next few months.
About Asian Aerospace
Asian Aerospace 2006 is Asia Pacific's foremost aerospace and defence technology exhibition and airshow organised by Asian Aerospace 2006 Pte Ltd, a joint venture between Reed Exhibitions and Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. Strongly supported by leading international aerospace and defence organisations including USDoD, GIFAS (France), SBAC (UK), IEICI (Israel), BDLI (Germany), AIAD (Italy), NAG (The Netherlands) and Belgian Aerospace/FLAG (Belgium), the 13th presentation of Asian Aerospace 2006 will be held from 21 - 26 February 2006 at Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore. As the leading technology trend-setting aviation event, AA2006 continues to expand its profile to incorporate the latest in the civil and military sectors of the aerospace industry.
For more details on Asian Aerospace, please visit the website at www.asianaerospace.com.
Held in-conjunction with Asian Aerospace, Asian Defence Technology 2006 is positioned as Asia's leading defence exhibition connecting land defence suppliers to the most influential network of government executives and the highest level of military officials around the world. To be held from 21 - 26 February 2006 at Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore, Asian Defence Technology 2006 is organised by Asian Aerospace 2006 Pte Ltd, a joint venture between Reed Exhibitions and Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd.
For more details on ADT 2006, please visit the event website at www.adt-expo.com.
About Reed Exhibitions: The world's leading organiser of trade and consumer exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions excels in creating high profile, highly targeted business and consumer exhibitions to establish and maintain business relations, and generate new business.
Every year we run over 460 events in 38 countries, bringing together over 90,000 suppliers and more than 5.5 million buyers. With 2,300 employees in 33 offices around the globe we serve 52 industries worldwide.
Our network of offices and promoters extends to 45 countries. With more market-leading exhibitions than any other organiser, nobody delivers more business contacts than Reed Exhibitions.
For more information, please visit www.reedexpo.com.
In addition to Asian Aerospace, Reed Exhibition's Aerospace & Defence Group organises a further five shows comprising DSEi in London - the world's largest tri-service Defence event, LAAD (Latin America Aero & Defence) in Rio - serving all market sectors across the region, ITEC in the UK & Mainland Europe - Europe's only dedicated Defence training & simulation event, Helitech in Duxford, UK - the largest helicopter event in Europe and TADTE in Taipei - serving the Taiwanese market. Reed's sister company RBI also publishes Flight International, Airline Business and provides industry information services through its ATI and AvSoft activities. Reed Exhibitions has ambitious plans to develop its portfolio further in this industry.
- www.dsei.co.uk
- www.laadexpo.com
- www.taipeitradeshows.com.tw/tadte
- www.helitech.co.uk
- www.itec.co.uk
About Flight
Flight is the leading international aviation media group, as well as the world's oldest, dating back to the first copy of Flight magazine in 1908. Today the group has grown to take a world position in online and offline media, incorporating:
- Flight International the premier international aerospace weekly;
- Flight Daily News, the award winning air show daily newspaper;
- Airline Business the world's principal title for airline boardrooms;
- www.flightglobal.com the world's largest aviation media website;
- ATI, the air transport sector's pioneering 24h online news and data service;
- ACAS, the world's most comprehensive civil and military fleet database.
Flight is part of the Reed Elsevier publishing group and a sister publication to Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest show organiser.