President Angelo Vallerani: "The export figures for the first quarter tell us about a start to the year that opened with some hope of improvement, but air transport is suffering and has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels"
VIDEO SERVICE FROM FARNBOROUGH 2022
In the first quarter of 2022 the Lombard aerospace industry exported goods for 231 million euros, marking a + 43,4% compared to the same period last year. These are the numbers with which the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster presents itself at the international appointment with the Farnborough International Airshow 2022, representing a system that has more than 200 companies for almost 20 thousand employees, generates an added value in the territory of almost 6 billion euros. and alone represents 15% of Italian exports in the sector.
Specifically, among the top 7 recipient countries of Lombard exports, we find the United Kingdom (30 million), Poland (26 million), Germany (14 million) and France (12 million), a sign that the attention of the sector aerospace in the region is turning back to strategic markets such as those of Northern Europe. Exchanges with the rest of the world are also of great interest, led by Kuwait (56 million) and followed by the United States (30 million) and Israel (10 million).
“The export data for the first quarter of 2022 speak to us of a start to the year that opened with some glimmers of improvement. From the point of view of production, however, the tensions common to all sectors of Italian industry remain for the sector. In particular, as regards the price of energy and raw materials: the latter, in particular, deriving largely from trade with Russia, are the cause of increasingly growing tensions, due to the continuation and worsening of the conflict Russian-Ukrainian ”, comments Angelo Vallerani, President of the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster from the exhibition halls of the London Airshow.
On the other hand, the possible opportunities for internationalization and exploration of foreign markets for companies are undermined by the difficulties that air mobility is experiencing in this phase of recovery: “We have not yet returned to pre-Covid levels, unfortunately. The problems are many and under the eyes of all, between strikes in airport airports and the lack of staff, a source of serious delays and flight cancellations: the pandemic and the Coronavirus will also be behind us, but air transport is suffering and full operations are still a long way off ”, Vallerani points out.
The importance of creating a system
The window of the Farnborough International Airshow represents an opportunity that the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster is back to seize after the stop due to the pandemic. The message to the international market of the sector and the declared objective are clear: the Lombard aerospace technological know-how is also made up of numerous small and medium-sized enterprises that can also establish themselves abroad by teaming up and presenting themselves together at one of the most important world events for the sector. This is the delegation of the 14 small and medium-sized enterprises present in London together with the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster, of which 11 physically in the institutional stand 1443 in Hall 1: AMM, Ase, Aviochem, Brancaro Industries, Cordon Electronics Italia, Italiana Ponti Radio, Jointek Aerospace, MPG Instruments, Mecaer Aviation Group, Merletti Aerospace and OVS Villella. Instead, the individual stands of Aerea, Logic and Secondo Mona surround this space.
The point on Advanced Air Mobility in Lombardy
The Flash Meeting, organized in the Cluster exhibition spaces, with testimonies from the President Angelo Vallerani and Alan Christian Rizzi, Undersecretary for Relations with the International Delegations of the Region, took stock of Lombard technologies in terms of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). Lombardy, which once again confirms the interest in the internationalization activities of the Lombard aerospace district.
“It was September 2020 when, for the first time, the Lombardy Region and the Lombard Aerospace Cluster met to address the issue of the AAM. After an analysis of the general context, in January 2021 we signed an agreement with the aim of presenting, during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, a project for a new transport system. Having started to think about advanced air mobility precisely from the Lombardy region is significant, because it fully represents all the different cases and difficulties relating to transport that a territory can have. There are mountains, lakes but also cities and metropolises: therefore the experiment and experience gained here can be a food for thought, especially for ENAC (National Agency for Civil Aviation), to be applied to all other Italian regions ”, explains Rizzi.
Vallerani echoes him: “We strongly believe in urban air mobility, as a frontier for the future. In fact, traditional means such as helicopters will be joined by new air mobility systems. This path of development of new technologies, carried out together with the precious and fruitful collaboration with the Lombardy Region, however, also needs collaboration with other national clusters. Hence the choice to involve companies like ours in ever closer synergies, precisely with the aim of giving the country system an opportunity for growth. An objective that can only be achieved by aggregating all the skills that exist in our territories ".
Also present on a visit to the exhibition halls and the stand of the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster was Fabio Lunghi, President of the Varese Chamber of Commerce, who again supports the Cluster in its mission to Farnborough. “For the Chamber of Commerce it is important to support, as we have been doing for years, with a contribution the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster in its path of internationalization, also and above all in the participation in important trade fairs like this one. We do our part but, from now on, it will be important to stimulate the other institutions as well, so that they give more relevance to a Cluster that is of vital importance for our territory ”, says Lunghi.
The main supporter of the activities and projects of the Lombardy Aerospace Cluster is the Union of Industrialists of the Province of Varese (Confindustria Varese), as underlined by the Director Silvia Pagani: “We have always believed in the potential of the Lombardy Aerospace Cluster. As an association that represents the know-how and skills of a multi-sectoral territory, it is strategic for us to focus on the aerospace sector that unites aircraft and space manufacturers with flight service operators such as SEA. All realities that will be interested in this change in the form of mobility represented by the Advanced Air Mobility ”.