Europe, Africa, Russia, India and Asia. Industry insiders point out that local investment community showed considerable interest in setting up a joint venture development to manufacture helicopters using the latest technology from leading global players. Interest in aviation related investments is extremely high at present.

The new Dubai airport facility is expected to handle 120 million passengers and over 12 million tons of cargo each year. The targeted annual movements of the new upcoming “Dubai World Central International Airport” are most impressive for light aviation which will see 60,000 aircrafts, the executive jet sector will have 40,000 new additions and the helicopter sector will witness the addition of 35,000 helicopters. Air taxi is a new business for helicopter charter companies in the UAE,
which traditionally served the oil and gas industry with its long travel times between sites and offshore work, in addition to search and rescue operations. Indeed, as recently as five years ago, charter companies were booking just a few hours a month of helicopter travel, but now the country is emerging as one the fastest growing markets in the world as a lot of the growth is being driven by the need to ferry executives, owners, and potential investors to the Palm and World islands.
Yet another use of helicopters is to use sky banners to target UAE advertisers and event promoters. The UAE has a significant outdoor advertising market, predominated by super-size billboards that can cost advertisers up to US$1million a year, for just one site. Innovative and mobile flying banners are slated to have better impact and visibility as they cover a wider geographical area which makes it
appealing to the advertisers and event promoters, at a lesser cost than static billboard displays.Pleased with the response Dubai Helishow 2008 has received until now from the exhibitors and the industry experts, Mr. Abdulla A. Abulhoul, Managing Director, Mediac Communications & Exhibitions LLC commented “Dubai Helishow 2004 and 2006 were significant successes and have laid a solid foundation for this year’s edition. It’s quite a significant achievement that in such a short time the exhibition has grown in its stature as an international exhibition and
has established itself as a benchmark for one of the region’s fastest growing industry. I am sure this year’s show will be of a greater importance with the launch of Dubai Air Medical & Rescue Show.