{"id":3512,"date":"2014-02-26T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T23:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/?p=3512"},"modified":"2014-04-26T23:07:46","modified_gmt":"2014-04-26T22:07:46","slug":"fidae-2014-3-months-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gacetaeronautica.com\/gaceta\/wp-102\/fidae-2014-3-months-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"FIDAE 2014 preparing for launch: One month and counting down!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Civil aviation should continue to increase its market share levels in FIDAE 2014 as regional military spending remains at a plateau (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2012).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roughly a month before the opening ceremony,\u00a0Gaceta Aeron\u00e1utica updates its evolving “sneak peek” of what proffesional and amateur visitors and the general public may encounter late in March, when\u00a0FIDAE 2014<\/strong>\u00a0will officially\u00a0open up at Santiago de Chile’s international airport.<\/p>\n

Attempting to provide the most compact and anticipated preview of the show, this report follows the countdown style adopted for FIDAE 2012 and, relevant news forthcoming, may continue to be updated until the week preceding the\u00a018th International Air & Space Fair<\/strong> (XVIII Feria Internacional del Aire y el Espacio)\u00a0opening ceremony on 25 March 2014.<\/p>\n

Boasting “more than 35 years of experience”,\u00a0FIDAE\u00a0defines itself as “the foremost aerospace and defence fair in the region and one of the most important and well-known around the world”. And attempts to set itself apart as the “the only all-embracing exhibition centre that summons six fields: commercial-executive aviation, defence, aircraft maintenance, airport equipment & services, space technologies and homeland security”.<\/p>\n

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Very much as it happend in the most recent FIDAE editions, executive aviation is expected to play a starring role in FIDAE 2014 (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2008).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New and unique to FIDAE 2014<\/h3>\n

Innovating over earlier editions, FIDAE’s two traditional segments are being re-branded. What in the past were known as the “professional” and “public days” are now being renamed\u00a0the\u00a0Trade Exhibition<\/strong>\u00a0(25-28 March) and the Air Show<\/strong>\u00a0(29-30 March), respectively.<\/p>\n

Segment differentiation was revealed when the fair’s renovated web site<\/a> was launched in August 2013.\u00a0The new, sleek portal distributes information into red and blue\u00a0sections catering for their intended audiences\u00a0(show and\u00a0trade, respectively).<\/p>\n

Having puportedly secured a meaningful Brazilian order, FIDAE also set out to build a\u00a0new hangar<\/strong>. Located North of the fair ground, the new building has been labelled “Hall E1” and will add 700 square meters in covered surface, with construction work well underway in late October 2013.\u00a0A further two smaller halls, labelled “A1” and “B1”, are also being added West of the fair ground.<\/p>\n

With an estimated 400 square meters surface, sector “B1” will be allocated to the also new\u00a0Commercial Aviation Hall<\/strong>, which “will house displays and\u00a0presentation areas focused specifically on addressing the challenges and demands of the\u00a0burgeoning commercial aviation market in Latin America”, as specified by organizers, Kallman Worldwide.<\/p>\n

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Brazil will again play a key role at the trade exhibition, with close to 50 companies occuppying new-built hall “E1”. ABIMDE member AEQ Aeroespacial (formerly, Britanite Defence Systems) could again be exhibiting their complete range of guided and unguided bombs and rockets (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2010).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Addressing one of FIDAE’s Achilles heels,\u00a0public traffic planning\u00a0<\/strong>got underway in earnest in mid-November 2013, with coordinating activities involving representatives from Air Force, Police, Transportation Ministry, Civil Aviation and Airports authorities, toll highways and Arturo Merino Ben\u00edtez airport management.<\/p>\n

Looking for worldwide customers<\/h3>\n

Projecting FIDAE’s historical growth rate (20%\u00a0as measured in the quantity of participating exhibitors), it should be reasonable to expect that 2014 will see more than 650 firms showing up at Pudahuel.\u00a0Working towards that goal,\u00a0FIDAE’s\u00a0international promotion campaign<\/strong>\u00a0started in 2012 and visited global trade shows looking for customers from around the world willing to buy on their “gateway to the Latin American market” value proposition.<\/p>\n

In the last seven months of 2012, FIDAE\u00a0was present at Eurosatory (France, June), Farnborough (UK, July), ILA Berlin (Germany, September), Africa Aerospace & Defence (South Africa, September), Japan Aerospace (October),\u00a0Airshow China (November), I\/ITSEC (USA, December) and Exponaval (Chile, December).<\/p>\n

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Having shown it in scale-model format in the past, we hope Boeing will continue to promote the 737 MAX, the ultimate evolution in the Fat Albert lineage (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2012).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout 2013, the organizers also attended HOMSEC (Spain, Fabruary), LAAD (Brazil, April), IDEF (Turkey, May), Le Bourget (France, June), F-Air Colombia (July), MAKS (Russia, September) and LARS (Chile, November).<\/p>\n

FIDAE management has also promoted the fair among\u00a0local businessmen<\/strong>, offering them a prime “opportunity to exhibit their projects and interact with companies from other countries”, as stated in a November press release.\u00a0To that purpose, representatives from powerful Chilean business associations, the National Chamber of Commerce and the Industry Promotion Society, and Ministry of Defence officials met FIDAE executives starting in October 2013.<\/p>\n

Military officials and business\u00a0executives from Australia<\/strong> looking for trade opportunities, in turn, met FIDAE and Air Force logistics officials in Santiago in April 2013, and 22 foreign air or defence attaches to Chile visited the fair ground in early December 2013.<\/p>\n

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If successful in their Asian focus, FIDAE 2014 should attract companies such as China’s CATIC and AVIC to exhibit their wares among prospective Latin American customers (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2010).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Confirmations, prospects, guesses…<\/h3>\n

Even though the fair is not yet publishing its exhibitors list, a number of confirmations and several leads are being made evident through FIDAE press releases and other sources.\u00a0ABIMDE, the\u00a0Brazilian Association of Defence and Security Material\u00a0Industries<\/strong>, was among the first national groups to confirm participation by close to 50 companies which will take up new pavilion “E1”.<\/p>\n

From a 23 February visit to the organizers’ web site, Kallman Worldwide has so far logged close to 90 companies and institutions to rent space at the\u00a0US Pavilion<\/strong>. Confirmed exhibitors include airframe and engine\u00a0manufacturers Air Tractor, Bell, Boeing,\u00a0Composite Engineering, Daher-Socata, Enstrom, General Atomics, GE Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon, Sikorsky, UTC (United Techologies) and Viking Air.<\/p>\n

Additional attendees come from\u00a0the ammunition, ISR (intelligence\/surveillance\/reconnaissance), logistics and medical support, supplies, information\/communication technologies and training sectors. US government bodies (the\u00a0Arizona Commerce Authority, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the US Embassy to Chile) and two Chilean firms (Cavimar Aerospace and\u00a0Treck) will also rent US pavilion space.<\/p>\n

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FAdeA and Aerol\u00edneas Argentinas are likely to dominate the Argentine stand once again (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2012).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boasting “a unique, long lasting relationship with most Latin American countries”, Israel<\/strong> will again be taking part in FIDAE in 2014. Coordinated by SIBAT,\u00a0the Ministry of Defense’s\u00a0Export and\u00a0Defense Cooperation Agency, this nation’s pavilion will be located in Hall “D” and will be populated by SIBAT itself and 11 Israeli companies (including IAI, IMI, IWI, Rafael and Elbit).<\/p>\n

According to a 19 December 2013 listing, the\u00a0<\/span>Austrian<\/strong>\u00a0Economic Chamber’s\u00a0<\/strong>Industrial Cooperation & Aviation Technology Working Group is to lead a seven\u00a0institutions delegation, with products and services spanning through FIDAE’s six fields of expertise.\u00a0<\/span>Argentina’s\u00a0government<\/strong> is also known to be promoting a 120 square meter stand among\u00a0national businesses\u00a0by offering marketing, trade and logistic support and\u00a0company size-based pricing (C\u00f3rdoba’s government is additionally offering to cover part of the travel costs and expenses for companies from that province).<\/p>\n

TEDAE, the Spanish Association of Air, Space and Defence Technology Companies, is working towards an unified <\/span>Spanish pavilion<\/strong>, where “increased representation and visibility” and limited Spanish government subsidies will be available for attending companies. MCIA, the <\/span>Uruguayan Air Industry Coordinating Table<\/strong>, is also looking for companies willing to integrate a national stand to be sponsored by Uruguay XXI, their government’s Investment and Exports Promotion Agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Celebrating the acquisition of 36 Gripens for the Brazilian Air Force, Saab will again be showing this large-scale model and a Gripen flight simulator al FIDAE 2014 (photo: Carlos Ay, FIDAE 2010).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to FIDAE information, LATAM Airlines and DGAC, Chile’s \u00a0Civil Aviation Authority, are to base their stands in the new Commercial Aviation Hall; while Sweden’s SAAB is coming back to Santiago to celebrate the Brazilian decission to buy 36 Gripen fighters for their air force. Several other companies, including Beechcraft, ERA, Euro Avionics, Honeywell,\u00a0Maxam, Russian Helicopters, Suntech \u00a0and Tecnobit, are already listing FIDAE 2014 as a forthcoming event (or outright confirming their participation) on their sites; and prospective negotiations were also revealed by FIDAE with Airbus Helicopters’ Chilean branch in June and with China’s CATIC in July 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conferences, simposiums, conventions & media meetings<\/h3>\n

As usual, several forums and media events are to take place in Chile coinciding with FIDAE 2014. Notice some of the may require formal invitation (e.g. logistics commanders meeting), special accreditation (e.g. IATA’s Wings of Change) or outright ticket purchase (Bruce Dickinson conferences). Confirmed so far are the following:<\/p>\n

Tuesday 25 March:<\/strong><\/p>\n