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Andalusia’s regional minister of economy and knowledge, Antonio Ramírez de Arellano, had two meetings in Québec on March 25 with senior managers from two Canadian aerospace companies, Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney Canada.
The meetings were aimed at boosting relationships with companies from the Andalusian cluster, within the framework of the trade mission organized by Extenda.
Arellano has stressed the importance of this trade mission, whose main aim is to analyze opportunities within the Canadian market and establish possible avenues of business and collaboration. He described the meetings with Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney as “truly strategic.”
According to Arellano, the Andalusian aerospace cluster comprises a highly resilient industry built around the driving force of Airbus, which has a final assembly line in Seville, Spain.
It is a top-level sector, with a profusion of research and development (R&D), and capable of competing internationally to supply major aircraft manufacturers such as Bombardier, Embraer and Boeing’.
Arellano indicated the valuable level of integration of the companies comprising the Andalusian cluster, “understanding the need to work together in order to compete internationally.
“Our industry is ready to respond to any demand and, to this end, we want to ensure that our sector’s competence and experience is at the disposal of the international market,” he said.
Trade relations with Canada in this area are still in the early stages. Exports by the Andalusian aeronautical industry to Canada were worth 2.8 million euros in 2016, and sales have multiplied five-fold over the past five years (2012 to 2016), increasing from 540,000 euros to 2.8 million euros.
For this reason, “the potential to expand our business in aeronautics is extraordinary; we have plenty of room for improvement and this is a great opportunity with strategic importance for Andalusia,” he said.
Bombardier
At Bombardier, Arellano met with the company’s vice president of industrialization, Steve Lavoie, and the director of industrialization and aerostructures, Lucie Francoeur, a meeting which was followed up by a visit, with the rest of the Andalusian trade delegation, to the CRJ and C Series aircraft final assembly line (FAL).
Also during the course of the day, Bombardier representatives gave a professional presentation on their company, its relationship with Spain and the operation of its supply chain.
Bombardier is the leading player in Canada’s aerospace industry, and the main interest for the Andalusian sector lies in developing synergies with the company’s production plant in Casablanca, Morocco.
In this regard, the regional minister and Bombardier managers have discussed plans for the company in Europe and Morocco. Also within the framework of the meeting, the regional minister invited representatives of the Canadian manufacturer to take an in-depth look at the aeronautics centres of Seville and Cadiz and to again participate in next year’s aerospace and defence meetings, organized by the Regional Ministry of Economy, through Extenda.
With an extensive portfolio of mobility solutions, Bombardier is one of the leading manufacturers of aircraft and a global leader in the rail industry. In terms of the aerospace industry, their relationship with the Andalusian cluster is predominantly based on subcontracting, as the Canadian company has a production plant in Casablanca.
Andalusia is also involved in work on Bombardier’s major aerospace programs, with contracts for parts for the fuselage and wings of the C Series, and other projects for the CRJ, the Canadian Regional Jet, as well as private company jets.
Pratt & Whitney Canada
The regional minister also met with Satheeshkumar Kumarasingam, vice president of business development and commercial services at Pratt & Whitney Canada and other representatives from the company’s business division.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is a supplier of engines to both Bombardier and Airbus, and is the manufacturer of the engines for the C295 aircraft, whose final assembly takes place at the Seville FAL. Sixteen of these aircraft have been contracted from Airbus by the Canadian government.
Because of this and the level of interest shown by the company, the regional minister has advocated the advantages that Andalusia can offer the sector, such as the fact that it is home to the third most important aerospace hub in Europe and that the sector has been designated as “strategic” by the Andalusian government, with all that this entails in terms of support for its infrastructures and investments.
Pratt & Whitney Canada is a global leader in the manufacture of new generation engines for helicopters and regional aircraft.
Pratt & Whitney Canada’s operations and service network spans the globe. It powers the largest fleet of business and regional aircraft and helicopters–52,000 engines in more than 200 countries–and employs approximately 8,800 people around the world, including approximately 6,200 in Canada.
The meetings with both companies took place within the framework of the aerospace industry trade mission to Canada organised by Extenda, which is 80 per cent co-financed by European Union funds via the 2014 to 2020 ERDF Operational Programme for Andalusia.
