The Dubai Airport Show 2025 took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th of May and is one of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) events in the Middle-East. ATM is only a part of the show which covers everything airport-related, and exhibitors from airfield lighting, passenger security, ground handling service, control room equipment, and more are present. The ATM relevant exhibitors this year were Dubai Air Navigation Services (dans), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Searidge, ADB Safegate and Honeywell.
The last three were present as part of their long time presence in Dubai and to show their partnership with dans and Dubai Airports. Pat Urbanek, VP Business Development MEA & APAC at Searidge mentioned their 14 years of partnership with Dubai Airports in Digital Apron and Airside solutions as one of the reasons for the company to exhibit at the event. We discussed how the company bids on an open platform allowing the integration of third party components as the future of ATM digitalisation.
ATM in focus at the conference theater
As the show targets airports, no pure ATM solution provider was exhibiting and this is something the organisers want to change starting next year. ATM was in the scope of the conference on the second day. Captain Abdullah AlHaider of the Dammam Airports Company opened the session talking about aviation growth in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and commented: “Handling this growth requires more than runways. It requires personnel, airspace changes and much more”.
Leon Gilmour of GCAA then gave a surprising presentation about the integration of eVTOLs and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). He started by showing examples of helicopter routes in the London Area and around Dubaï, with easy landmarks for visual navigation and explained how such a network makes it possible for Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) to handle helicopters in a busy area. A viable AAM business case will require more routes and it will be important to consider the ATCO’s workload, but he concluded that ATM has adapted to a lot of changes over time and that the introduction of AAM is no different.
The interesting part came at the very end of his presentation. He made it clear that his presentation was strictly limited to piloted eVTOLs with VHF radios and transponders, not to unmanned vehicles. In today’s industry, with many eVTOLs manufacturers promising autonomous air taxis flying around in the near future, publicly saying that only piloted ones can be integrated with ATM in the short to medium term is the reality.
Handling disruptive events and other ATM challenges
The next panel about learning from disruption and challenges gave the participants the opportunity to discuss the handling of events like the floods in Dubaï in 2024, but also more recent events, including the current tensions between India and Pakistan which continue to impact traffic flows. One participant insisted on the importance of proper training of unusual situations and mentioned that regular drills take place, including evacuation drills, which is unusual in the European context.
Another challenge in the region is airspace fragmentation, with many Flight Information Regions (FIRs) in a small geographical area, creating a lot of complexity and requiring a lot of coordination. Introducing a central Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) unit for the region could be a solution and this will only be possible in the longer term as it implies a lot of international cooperation.
Perspectives for next year
The organisers announced that the next edition of the Dubai Airport Show will take place from the 12th to 14th of March 2026. They plan to enlarge the ATM part and also the geographical scope of the event. It will reach beyond the UAE and become a regional event for the Middle East. Visitors interested exclusively in ATM should plan their visit on the day when the ATM conference will be organised and spend some time in the exhibition hall.
