Umbria Aerospace Cluster: results of participation at the International Paris Air Show 2023 in Le Bourget presented

With the entry of two new members, the membership of the Umbria Aerospace Cluster rises to 40. The Umbria Aerospace Cluster, a major player at June 2023’s International Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, the world's largest event dedicated to the aerospace industry, is growing and strengthening.

The results of the Umbrian Cluster's exhibition and trade mission to the International Air and Space Show were illustrated during a press conference held at the Confindustria Umbria headquarters in Perugia on 24 July 2023.

The meeting was attended by the President of the Umbria Region, Donatella Tesei, the Regional Councillor for Economic Development, Michele Fioroni, the President of the Umbria Aerospace Cluster, Daniele Tonti, and the Director General of Confindustria Umbria, Simone Cascioli.

Seventeen companies from the Cluster took part in the 2023 edition of the Paris Air Show, which saw high-level institutional meetings, more than 450 'business to business' meetings, and the signature of important international contracts. At the stand, which was set up with the support of the Umbria Region and Sviluppumbria, the Cluster companies operating in the aerospace and defence sector presented their services and technological excellence in the sector to an international clientele.

"We are particularly satisfied with the great success achieved at the Le Bourget Show," said the President of Umbria Aerospace Cluster Daniele Tonti, "the result of teamwork that has further contributed to making the Umbrian Cluster an internationally recognised brand. Aerospace and defence are highly strategic sectors for Umbrian industry. In the last two years alone, as many as twelve companies in the area have spontaneously joined the Cluster, which is characterised by increasing collaboration, both among the companies that are part of it and that increasingly share skills and innovative projects, and with local and regional institutions and the world of education. As of this year, in fact, in addition to the University of Perugia, ITE Scarpellini of Foligno, ITS Umbria and Sistemi Formativi Confindustria Umbria have been added as supporting members. This renewed synergy is fundamental for fostering the development and competitiveness of the sector, promoting the level of excellence expressed by our territory not only at the production level but also in the training and updating of human capital'.

The total turnover of the Cluster, which now has 40 members, is over 630 M€, of which 50% is direct export. The companies have about 4,200 direct employees, of which more than 10% are engaged in research and development. The companies that are part of the Cluster have registered a total of over 110 patents.

The institutional support to the activities carried out by the Umbrian Cluster was highlighted by the President of Umbria: “This supply chain,” said Donatella Tesei, “is a true excellence of Umbrian industry, as was also demonstrated in Paris, where our companies were able to showcase themselves at their best. The Region has been and will continue to be at the side of this important and strategic sector, just as it has done and will continue to do for all regional enterprises that are at the centre of regional policies as they are the fulcrum of our Umbria's growth”.

Councillor Michele Fioroni emphasised the value of the growth path of the Umbria Aerospace Cluster: "The strengthening of a Cluster of excellence like that of aerospace," he remarked, "well represents the policy of consolidation of strategic supply chains that, as an administration, we are implementing. A policy made up of various synergic actions, of which joint participation in sector fairs is an important but not exclusive component. I would like to remind you that the great challenge of the next few years, in addition to making ourselves known and recognised internationally as a Cluster of Excellence, will be to play a leading role in the technological transitions that the sector is called upon to face. From this point of view, we are also supporting the Cluster in terms of identifying challenges and opportunities linked to current technological trends, in the conviction that Umbria can play an increasingly leading role in this sector and continue to gain competitiveness in the coming years”.

During the press conference, the important institutional support provided to the Cluster by Sviluppumbria and the Municipality of Foligno was also mentioned.

The future plans of Umbria Aerospace Cluster are numerous and ambitious. Next November it will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its establishment and is also preparing to take part in new international trade fairs in the sector: the Aerospace & Defense Meetings in Turin, from 28 to 30 November 2023, and the Farnborough Airshow in London, from 22 to 26 July 2024.

Attending the press conference were Umbrian Marco Ferrazzani, Chief Legal Officer of the European Space Agency (ESA), and Andrea Patassa, Captain of the Italian Air Force and selected by the European Space Agency as one of its reserve astronauts.

Also present were representatives of the Cluster's member companies that took part in the International Aeronautics and Space Show, who displayed some of the innovative products presented to international customers during the Paris Air Show.