Passenger throughput at the Dubai International Airport will achieve growth to reach the 70 million mark in 2014 despite the 80-day runway closure, says Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, chairman of Dubai Airports and chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group

He was talking to the media after the opening of world’s top-league B2B event, Airport Show, that began at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center (DICEC).

“We remain strongly committed to aviation’s growth and our investments and developments in this crucial economic sector remain strong and unfaltering as ever before,” he added.

Ranked the world’s second busiest airport for international passengers, Dubai International Airport handled over 66 million passengers in 2013.

Dubai is slated to take over the mantle of the world’s busiest airport for international passengers from London Heathrow next year on the back of growth in air traffic.

Sheikh Ahmed said that Dubai, which aims to increase the aviation sector’s contribution to the GDP to 32 percent by 2020, will continue to invest in aviation infrastructure to cope up with the anticipated growth in air passengers and cargo movements in the coming years.

The B2B event is specially focused on the Middle East,North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region where the airport developments remains a top priority with the governments’ driving the aviation growth as a key contributor to the economic consolidation.

Keen on building a strong and sustainable future for their airports, the Arabian Gulf states are pumping in billions of dollars in the race to building new airports or expanding the existing facilities to meet the demands of future air travelers and expanding fleets of airlines, especially their national carriers.

The trade show, featuring 250 exhibitors from 39 countries, is designed for the airport procurement, supplies, solutions and technology for the Middle East region where estimated $100 billion investments, including $40 billion in the six GCC states, have been earmarked for airports expansion and new developments to handle the anticipated growth in air traffic.

Experts says airports in the MENA region, currently under various stages of expansion and upgrades, are projected to cater to 400 million passengers by 2020, with the UAE airports taking one-fourth of the share in the anticipated growth in air passenger traffic.

Exhibitors include from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the UAE.

As many as 66 companies, representing a broad spectrum of aviation industry segments, are participating in six country pavilions, including the first-ever joint US-Canada marquee. Germany Pavilion is the biggest of them with 31 exhibitors, including 11 new exhibitors, while China, France and Swiss pavilions features a total of 28 exhibitors, including seven new participants.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the Middle East continues to be a great success story in the aviation industry.

It noted that “about $40 billion are being invested in airport infrastructure in the Arabian Gulf alone by far-sighted” governments. The show will end on Tuesday.