Organizers of the new International Brazil Air Show (IBAS) this month confirmed plans to hold the inaugural event from March 29 to April 2, 2017, at Rio de Janeiro’s Galeão International Airport. The new event, which will include exhibitors from both the commercial and military aviation sectors, will be held in alternate years to Chile’s established FIDAE show. Rio de Janeiro’s existing LADD defense exhibition will start a day after IBAS, with organizers predicting that this event will increasingly focus on military ground and marine equipment.
The IBAS event organizer is private company Sator, which is already involved in staging the Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, which is held in São Paulo each August. The Galeão International Airport site offers just over 430,000 sq ft (40,000 sq m) of space for exhibits, including room for around 50 aircraft on outdoor static display. The show has the backing of local airport consortium RIOgaleão, as well as from city officials, the Brazilian civil aviation authority ANAC, aeronautical university ITA, the International Air Transport Association and Brazil’s airline association.
According to show supporter Francisco Lyra, a partner with Brazilian business aviation services group C>Fly Aviation, IBAS will have a strong focus on the aerospace supply chain. He noted that while Mexico does not produce a single aircraft, it now has more aviation manufacturing jobs than Brazil, largely due to its success as a supplier to the U.S. industry. He wants the Brazilian industry to be less reliant on airframer Embraer as its sole customer. “Brazil should be exporting more, and the exchange rate is currently favorable,” Lyra told AIN. According to Brazilian development bank BNDES, the aviation sector currently contributes around $6.4 billion gross ($1.5 billion net) to the economically struggling country’s balance of trade and support around 23,000 jobs.
Embraer itself has yet to commit to supporting IBAS. Winning this important backing will clearly be an important objective for show organizers.