The Andalusian regional government takes the aerospace industry very seriously and reaffirms this in Paris
The Andalusian Regional Government is well aware of the enormous strategic value that the aerospace sector represents for the region's economy and has made this clear with the presence of two of the main members of President Juanma Moreno's government at the International Air and Space Show in Paris.
Held from 19 to 25 June in the large covered pavilions and open-air esplanades of Le Bourget airport, some 10 kilometres from the Seine capital, the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mines, Jorge Paradela, and also the Minister of Economy, Finance and European Funds, Carolina España, have alternated their attendance at the French trade fair. There, they showed their support for the business community, announced on an international scale the ADM show scheduled to take place in Seville next May and presented the good results for the 2022 financial year.
Carolina España noted that last year was a period of "slow but gradual recovery of commercial passenger transport by air", a process that has led to a greater number of contracts between airlines and commercial aircraft manufacturers, a trend that has been confirmed by the number and value of the transactions announced at Le Bourget.
The most important of all has been the confirmation by the low-cost airline IndiGo of the purchase from Airbus of half a thousand A320 family aircraft, a contract that for Andalusian companies will mean a "substantial increase in their workloads", highlighted the Regional Minister.
A workforce of 13,000 people
Carolina España has also announced at the Parisian show the details of what will be the seventh edition of Aerospace & Defence Meeting or ADM Seville 2024, which will take place from 14 to 16 May in the capital of the Guadalquivir and will focus on cybersecurity and Spain's role in aerospace programmes. ADM seeks to attract investment from third countries, to show that Seville is the key point of Andalusia's aeronautical fabric and to consolidate the fair on the international circuit.
The Andalusian aerospace sector closed the year 2022 with a turnover and a volume of employment well above the results of 2021, according to data from the recent annual report of the Andalucía Aerospace cluster. The association, made up of 94 companies, was represented in Paris by 15 companies, grouped under the national pavilion organised by TEDAE, the Spanish Association of Defence, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies.
Last year's turnover was 2,356 million euros, which represents an increase of 17% over the previous year's figure of 2,002 million. The rise in economic terms ran parallel to the increase in employment, providing direct jobs for 13,136 people - 42% highly qualified, 41% university graduates and 17% other professionals - an increase of 8%.
The visit to the Paris show by the Regional Minister for Industry also made it possible to highlight the revitalisation of the sector in the Autonomous Community. Paradela has put a lime and a sand on one side, admitting that the COVID-19 had a "particularly hard impact", but that the results of 2022 prove that the sector is "strong, mature and has been able to overcome", so he anticipates that "it will come out stronger in 2023".
However, the significant rise in figures is still 16.93% below the turnover of 2019, the year before the start of the pandemic. It is also 9.45% lower than the volume of employment in that year. As a counterpoint, the group demonstrates "a high degree of resilience", leading Andalusia's exports and contributing 1.24% to the region's overall GDP and 9.19% to industrial GDP".
Europe is its main market
With the figures in hand, the president of Andalucía Aerospace, Antonio Gómez-Guillamón, acknowledged that "growth could have been higher", had it not been for the "incidence of adverse external factors, including the war in Ukraine, inflation and the supply crisis".
The Andalusian aerospace sector is made up of 143 companies, the vast majority of which are located in Seville (104), where the Airbus assembly plants for the C295 aircraft - which is in very good health - and the A400M, which will shortly receive an additional order from Spain and is still looking for new customers. The remaining companies are located in Cadiz (22), Malaga (11), Cordoba (3), Jaen (2) and Huelva (1).
The European Union is the preferred destination for exports and there are three main countries to which they are directed: Germany (27% of sales), France (24%) and Belgium (16%). Outside the EU, they are concentrated in the United Kingdom (8%), Turkey (6%) and the United States (5%). Their products, especially aerostructures, travel on European Airbus aircraft, American Boeing and Brazilian Embraer and more.
Apart from the Secretary of State for Defence, the Chief of the Air and Space Staff, General Javier Salto, and the Director General of the Spanish Space Agency, Miguel Belló, no other important Spanish government official is known to have attended the Paris show. Not even the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, who has been in Madrid focusing on Spain's imminent rotating presidency of the EU and in talks with the Czech ambassador, Iban Jancarek.
Mikel Amundarain, the Basque government's deputy minister for industry, was in Le Bourget, where he met with the directors of the Hegan aerospace cluster, which comprises 73 companies and institutions in the region. According to its annual report for 2022, Hegan companies provide jobs for 4,998 technicians and their turnover from the Autonomous Community amounts to 839 million euros -6.8% increase-, with the United Kingdom (with 30%), the United States (22%) and Germany (17%) being the main export destinations.
