Article Posted on : - Feb 23, 2010

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patil addressing a press confernce at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Photo

NEW DELHI (PTI): The second edition of 'India Aviation 2010' will be held in Hyderabad as scheduled and the ongoing protest over Telangana statehood issue is not likely to affect it, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said.

"India Aviation 2010 would be held from March 3 to 7, in which over 115 international exhibitors from 20 countries would be present," Patel told reporters here on Monday.

He said 'India Aviation 2010' -- International Exhibition and Conference on Civil Aviation -- would provide an opportunity to "our home grown industry" to show their potential to the world.

When asked whether he was apprehending any disruptions to the air show due to ongoing Telangana protest, Patel said, "I do not expect any such protests would affect the air show. The state government was doing their best to avoid such situation."

The second edition of 'India Aviation 2010' is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in Hyderabad. The first one was held in 2008.

"France is our partner country while the US is the focus country of this show. There would be country pavilions from Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands," Patel said.

Czech Republic, Russia and The Netherlands would put up their pavilion for the first time. Around 200 companies would be participating in the five-day air show of which 115 companies would be from overseas and the rest from India.

For the first time, an Antonov (AN) 148 aircraft, from Antonov UAC- Russia, would be on display in India.

Apart from big companies, like Airbus, Eurocopter, Thales, CFM, Safran, around 12 small and medium enterprises would also be participating for the first time.

There would be over 42 aircraft for flying and static display against 36 those participated in the last edition. The air show is expected to provide aviation and allied industrialists to interpret exposition of their products and services into business.

Airbus, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna Aircraft, Dassault Aviation, Gulfstream Aerospace, Hawker Beech Craft, UAC etc would exhibit their products.

The airlines’ Air India, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Indigo, Spicejet, Paramount and Qatar Airways - would be participating in the show apart from airport infrastructure companies like Airports Authority of India (AAI), GMR, GVK, Bangaluru International Airport, Super Airports, Selex (Italy) Smiths Detection and others. The exhibition would demonstrate the latest aero-space technology and educate the public on it.

Over 18 hospitality chalets have been taken by various companies from India and overseas to have meetings with their prospective customers in a typical air show atmosphere.

This year, there would be an increase of around 20 per cent in the area from around 10,000 square metres to around 12,000 square metres.