Around 600 aviation industry experts are expected to fly into Hamburg, after the city leveraged its role as a leading civil aviation hub to win the 138th Slot Conference of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The event is the largest for IATA, the global trade association for the airline industry. The conference creates a forum for allocating slots at fully coordinated airports, with the northern winter schedules to be assembled at the Hamburg conference, taking place 21-23 June 2016 at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH). It is the second IATA event to be hosted in Hamburg following the World Passenger Symposium in 2015, and further recognition of the German city’s role as one of the world’s most important locations in the civil aviation industry.
Frank Horch, Hamburg’s Minister of Economics, Transport and Innovation, said: “In the aviation industry word has spread that Hamburg, the world’s third largest aviation location, is an excellent place for establishing valuable contacts, for initiating collaborations and for exchanging knowledge.”
Hamburg is home to more than 40,000 specialist personnel in the aviation sector, with more than 300 suppliers and various institutions from the realms of technology and science contributing to its aviation expertise. The city is a knowledge centre for five aviation product segments: development and construction of aircrafts and aircraft systems; development and construction of cabins and cabin systems; optimisation of aviation services; increasing the efficiency of air transport systems, and aviation-related information and communication technologies.
Hamburg Aviation, a cluster dedicated to advancing the city as an aviation location, comprises local industry giants Airbus and Lufthansa Technik, along with Hamburg Airport and a raft of small and medium-sized enterprises. Intellectual capital is supplied by a variety of scientific and technological institutions, universities and associations, which work alongside the Hamburg Ministry of Economics and other regional partners. Together they aim to integrate research and development in order to launch quality products and services for future air travel.
In 2008, the Hamburg Aviation cluster was awarded the title of Leading-Edge Cluster by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In 2014, the European Commission’s ECEI initiative honoured Hamburg Aviation with its gold label for being one of the most well-managed clusters in Europe.
In close collaboration with the Hamburg Convention Bureau GmbH (HCB), the Hamburg Aviation cluster drew on the support of aviation partners throughout the region to attract the Slot Conference to the city. Thorsten Kausch, managing director of the HCB and Hamburg Marketing GmbH (HMG), said: “IATA’s Slot Conference confirms Hamburg as a major player in the international aviation industry. This event allows us to showcase the city and aviation cluster to opinion leaders and decision-makers.”
Dr Franz Josef Kirschfink, managing director of Hamburg Aviation, added: “The fact that we have been awarded the contract for two IATA conventions within a short period of time demonstrates the extent to which our location and our established industry network are considered highly convincing.”
