According to the organizers of the ILA international aerospace exhibition 2008 in Berlin which ended yesterday this year’s show was an immense crowd puller. Attendance reached about 250.000 people which is virtually the same record figure reached already two years ago. There were about 120.000 trade visitors – about 5000 more than in 2006 – who informed themselves on the latest trends at more than 100 conferences and on the exhibition ground. According to the management of the trade fair, the volume of announced business deals and co-operation agreements amounts to more than five billion Euros.
Among the super deals agreed on the ILA 2008 is an order of 35 airbus jets by Gulf Air (Bahrain) in the amount of 3.2 billion Euros which is the biggest civil aircraft deal ever announced on the ILA. This year’s partner country at the ILA2008 was India which used its largest-ever presentation at a foreign aerospace exhibition to present its business activities and to initiate business deals.
One of the main issues of this year’s ILA was innovation in order to reduce emissions caused by air traffic. The products and projects presented by 24 exhibitors in the course of the ILA´s „Path of Innovation“ feature demonstrated that many of the technologies needed to reduce emissions are already ready for use.
Over a period of six days there was a record attendance of 1127 exhibitors from 37 countries which demonstrated products, systems and procedures from all fields of the aerospace industry. 325 aircrafts of all categories and size swere on show in the air and on the ground. In the CareerCenter visitors could inform themselves on career opportunities in the aerospace sector.
54% of exhibitors think the current business situation in the aerospace industry is very good or good. The majority of them were satisfied with the trade fair. 72% of exhibitors expect follow-up business to be satisfactory. 