• Top level industry executives discuss air transport issues in the 21^st Century opened by HE Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications: conference speakers include MTT’s Acting Undersecretary of Civil Aviation Affairs Ahmed Al Nemah, Qatar Airways’ Akbar Al Baker, and Air Arabia’s Adel Ali  
• Official lunch hosted by HE Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications for Ministers, CEOs and invited guests
• Air Service Agreements and MoUs signed between the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications’ Civil Aviation Affairs and the Saudi Arabian General Authority of Civil Aviation, Egypt, the Czech Republic, Republic of Georgia, Hungary and Pakistan
• Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications holds bilateral meetings with Transport Ministers of Jordan and Morocco
• Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications meets senior executives from participating companies

Business activity on the second day of the Bahrain International Airshow 2016 was at full speed with the opening of  the ‘Air Transport in the 21^st Century’ conference, which was opened by His Excellency Engineer Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Organising Committee of BIAS. 

The conference included panel discussions on major issues affecting Middle East carriers including increased competition, passenger experience, deregulation and the Open Skies agreement and provided greater opportunities for networking and debate. The panel of speakers included Akbar Al Baker from Qatar Airways, Adel Ali from Air Arabia, Paul Byrne from Flynas and Philip Saunders from Kuwait Airways. 

In his keynote address, Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications Acting Undersecretary for Civil Aviation Affairs His Excellency Ahmed Al Nemah said, “In the Kingdom of Bahrain, we have always recognised the importance of the aviation industry, and in the early 1920s the first flight in the region landed in Bahrain.  Since that time, we have remained at the forefront of regional aviation, especially due to our geographic location which positions us as a gateway between East and West.  Bahrain’s flight information region is one of the most active in the region, with 5% annual growth and witnessing more than 600,000 flights annually.”

Significant announcements for the day included the signing of agreements and MOUs between the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication’s Civil Aviation Affairs and other countries. These included Air Service Agreements with the Czech Republic, Republic of Georgia, and Hungary, and an MOU with Egypt, and Pakistan.   A bilateral Air Services Agreement was also signed by HE the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications and the President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) HE Sulaiman Al Hamdan which includes increasing the number of flights between the two countries to 107 flights per week and will grant Bahrain’s national carrier, Gulf Air, permission to operate flights to domestic airports.   

The day’s proceedings also included meetings with Ministers of Transport from Jordan and Morocco, as well as key business meetings with companies at the airshow including Comlux and Huawei and other participating international companies.   

The daily four hour flying display continued with aerobatic displays by the Saudi Hawks, Emirates AlFursan, the Indian Sarang helicopter team, the Twister team and Mark Jeffries.

The hosted buyer programme, which provides companies participating in the program the opportunity to meet with potential business partners, continued to see meetings between suppliers and potential buyers and provided further networking opportunities. 

Speaking about the day’s events, HE the Minister said “The second day has proved to be another success with fruitful discussions and major agreement signings and announcements which further emphasize Bahrain International Airshow’s position as a platform for forging ties and relations with companies and industry leaders. The hosted buyer programme and the Air Transport Conference have also been successfully in engaging participants and in providing greater opportunities for networking with with key decision makers in the aviation industry.”