AIE China — aircraft interiors expo

AIE China is Asia’s focused B2B marketplace for aircraft cabin programmes, built to compress scouting, technical due diligence and shortlist creation into three meeting-dense days. Running on March 12–14, 2026 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), it concentrates airlines, airframers, completion centres and tier suppliers in adjacent halls where mock-ups, certification artefacts and live demos replace brochure talk. Procurement and engineering teams can evaluate weight deltas, maintainability, hygiene and passenger-experience outcomes in a single pass while aligning bill-of-materials, customer-/buyer-furnished splits and EIS windows across fleets. Because key certification partners and MROs are also on the floor, burn/smoke roadmaps, dynamic-test queues, documentation readiness and spares logistics are verified on the spot, reducing rework after the show. The March Shanghai window further lets teams synchronise cabin refresh decisions with nearby materials and aerospace events, keeping design, electrical, testing and certification owners in the same building when choices are locked.

Content spans the full cabin value chain and its approval paths. Seating ranges from high-density economy to premium suites, covering structures, kinematics, actuators, cushions, foams and fire-blocking layers with HIC and 16g/21g dynamic-test routes. Monuments and galleys present composite and thermoplastic builds, inserts like ovens and chillers, potable and waste-water architectures and electrical/thermal budgets; lavatory and accessibility modules address footprint, privacy and cleaning regimes. Trim & finish includes lightweight sidewalls, decorative laminates, carpets and covers; lighting focuses on LED systems, drivers, heat limits and mood/scene control. IFEC and connectivity bring antennas, modems, WAPs and head-end with throughput/latency data and cybersecurity postures, while cabin management and power tie architectures together. Safety and certification experts walk FST methods, DO-160/DO-178/DO-254 pathways and TSO/ETSO status. MRO and completions add repair schemes, PMA parts and DER support; sustainability zones examine recyclable panels, bio-based textiles and circular upholstery with quantified weight and CO₂ effects.

Attendance balances airline cabin/product owners, maintenance and engineering, airframers and completion centres, seat and monument OEMs, materials and systems vendors, IFEC/connectivity providers, MROs and retrofit integrators, test labs, certification bodies and design studios. Delegations arrive with route-driven briefs and hard envelopes for mass, CoG, galley/lav traffic, accessibility, power and thermal budgets, cyber expectations and entry-into-service dates; therefore meetings move immediately to feasibility—qualification slots, documentation readiness, HIC/ATD datapacks, FST scheduling, harness routing constraints, interchangeability and spares baskets, cleaning-chemistry compatibility and abrasion resistance. Vendors bring partial and full mock-ups for human-factors checks, share dynamic-test references and disclose design-organisation approvals and change-control discipline. The deliberately transaction-oriented mix lifts conversion from interest to RFQs, pilots and retrofit or refresh workscopes with fewer unknowns.

On the floor, teams can walk end-to-end cabin workflows. Seating islands reveal shells, mechanisms, actuators, PSU integration and power/thermal margins alongside cover kits and fire-blocking solutions carrying FST data, enabling apples-to-apples trades between mass, comfort, durability and maintenance labour. Nearby stands show sidewall and monument panels, decorative laminates, carpets and adhesives with cleaning compatibility and recyclability notes. Galley suppliers display inserts, chiller/oven performance, potable and waste-water components and integration kits for different bus architectures; lavatory suppliers discuss footprint, privacy, accessibility and odour control with service intervals. IFEC vendors present antenna radomes, modems, WAPs and head-end with cybersecurity postures and throughput/latency curves; lighting specialists demonstrate drivers, optics and scene control, highlighting heat constraints and dimming behaviour. MRO/completion exhibitors set out repair schemes, PMA solutions and DER services; test labs explain DO-160 programmes and dynamic-seat capacity so specifications can be finalised before tender.

SNIEC provides adjacent halls, high floor loads, robust power distribution and a mature contractor ecosystem—essentials when moving seats, galley modules, lav units, test rigs and wiring looms. Its Pudong location places supplier offices and materials labs within easy reach, enabling same-day mock-up walkthroughs, specification workshops and off-site flammability or materials checks. Metro connectivity and dense hotel stock allow two-to-three-day programmes packed with demos, ergonomics reviews and contract sessions, while predictable access windows and loading docks reduce install risk for delicate actuators, foams and electronics. The venue’s EHS protocols support credible live demonstrations rather than static displays, which matters when choosing platforms that must withstand airline operations and turnaround cleaning without compromising safety or passenger comfort.

AIE China is organised by Shanghai Golden Commercial Exhibition Co., Ltd., a specialist B2B organiser that consistently recruits airline cabin/product teams, OEM suppliers, MROs and design studios for transaction-ready meetings. The operating model blends targeted buyer acquisition, clear zoning and structured matchmaking, so discussions move straight to execution—BOM finalisation, TSO/ETSO checks, flammability and dynamic-test scheduling, upholstery/repair SLAs and spares logistics. Post-show follow-up (warm introductions, certification/test-lab contacts and document workflows) lifts conversion from booth talks to RFQs, pilots and retrofit or refresh contracts. A stable March slot at SNIEC simplifies logistics for full-scale seat and monument mock-ups and aligns AIE with adjacent aerospace and materials shows, keeping engineering, electrical, testing and certification owners in one place when decisions are locked.