Singapore Airshow tickets sell like hotcakes

SINGAPORE: Some 70,000 tickets to this year's Singapore Airshow have been snapped up.

Organisers expect the remaining 20,000 tickets for the public to sell out over the next three days.

Ninety thousand tickets have been set aside for the public, and another 10,000 for corporate partners.

The event opens to trade visitors on Tuesday and to the public the following weekend on February 18 and 19.

Forty-five thousand public tickets have been allocated for each day of the weekend.

And organisers said tickets for February 18 are close to being sold out.

The world's biggest players are gearing up to tap on Singapore's growing aerospace sector, which created 8,000 jobs in the last decade.

The Economic Development Board said four in five of jobs created in the aerospace sector went to Singaporeans.

Lim Kok Kiang, executive director of Transport Engineering at the Singapore Economic Development Board, said: "The maintenance, repair and overhaul sector will continue to be a key focus. We want to deepen capabilities and move up the value-chain in this.

"Manufacturing is emerging as another key pillar of growth for the aerospace industry. At the same time, we are also expanding and extending into aftermarket services, such as aircraft leasing and training, pilot training. All these will create good job opportunities for Singaporeans."

Singapore Technologies Engineering has the biggest presence at the airshow, showing off its defence and aerospace wares, plus ideas for a greener future.

Around 140,000 delegates and public visitors are expected to pack the event held at the Changi Exhibition Centre.

Jimmy Lau, managing director of Experia Events, the organiser for the Singapore Airshow 2012, said: "What we've done is to create more access for everyone, at the same time improve on the local transportation - the shuttle service. The frequency has been increased to every two minutes."