The next biennial Singapore Airshow (February 16-21, 2016) is promising to be even bigger and better than this year’s event and will for the first time feature a Business Aviation Zone.

“The Asia Pacific region is leading the way in aviation industry growth and Singapore, with its strategic location at the heart of Asia, provides an ideal platform for international companies to springboard into this thriving region,” Leck Chet Lam, managing director of organizer Experia Events, told AIN. “To date, 80 percent of the exhibition has already been booked,” adding that this bears testimony to “the relevance and importance of the show as a must-attend event in the industry’s global calendar. We are confident that [the] Singapore Airshow will maintain its standing as the premier platform for companies to grow their business in Asia.”

The show is one of a handful around the world that combines military and commercial aviation in one event, and few could disagree with the organizer’s assertion that it is “Asia’s largest and one of the most important aerospace and defense exhibitions in the world” and that it has been “successful in bringing together a large number of high-level military delegations and leading industry players from national airlines, airport operators, related industries and top-level government officials in the Asia-Pacific.”

The 2016 show, for which around 80 percent of exhibit space has now been sold, will be the fifth Singapore Airshow run by Experia. Previously, the event was billed as Asian Aerospace, which was first held back in 1981.

Following on from the Singapore Airshow 2014, the 2016 event will be further expanded to include an “Aerospace Emerging Technologies Zone” and, of great interest to MEBA attendees, the Business Aviation Zone. In addition, the Aviation Training Zone will be expanded to include the military sector as well as commercial aviation, and will be known as the Training and Simulation Zone.

Experia pointed out that the Asia Pacific region has now overtaken Europe in terms of the size of its commercial air transport fleet and “the business aviation sector is estimated [by ICF International] to enjoy robust growth.”

The company added that, “In the Asia Pacific region alone, between 2013 and 2023, the forecasted CAGR for business aviation fleet growth over the next decade is 6.4 percent, more than double that of the global [Compound Annual Growth Rate] of 2.7 percent.

“Long-time exhibitors at the Singapore Airshow such as Bombardier and Cessna have also projected strong demand in the long term,” said Experia. “Over the next two decades, Bombardier forecasts approximately 1,000 business jet deliveries in Asia Pacific while Cessna has set up a joint service facility with sister company Bell Helicopter at the Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore to support the Southeast Asian business aviation fleet.

“In light of this trend, Singapore Airshow will launch the Business Aviation Zone located at the static display area. It will allow aircraft manufacturers to showcase their products and services to top business leaders and other purchase decision-makers attending the event.”

Singapore Airshow 2016 will also feature once more an Aviation Leadership Summit and the Asia Pacific Security Conference.

The 2014 Singapore Airshow, held in February this year at the Changi Exhibition Centre, was the biggest yet with the largest number of exhibitors in the show’s history–over 1,000 participating companies from 47 countries/regions” and “deals announced worth $32 billion. A study by Kadence International estimated that the event contributed S$319 million to the Singapore economy in 2014, a 25 per cent increase over the 2012 show.