The Opening Ceremony of the twenty-third edition of the International Air and Space Fair, FIDAE 2024, was carried out on Tuesday, April 9.

The activity was presided over by the Minister of National Defense, Maya Fernández Allende, along with the Commander-In-Chief of the Chilean Air Force, General Hugo Rodríguez Gonzales, President of FIDAE, Lieutenant General Venegas Raggio. Important civil and military, national, and foreign authorities were also present.

During his speech, the President of FIDAE pointed out that: “the current edition of the Fair will use 14,584 square meters of space to comfortably house more than 450 exhibiting companies, which will be visited by 420 official delegations that will be present. Furthermore, during the days of the trade show, more than 3,000 meetings will be scheduled".

The activity held a tour through the exhibition halls, during which the Minister of Defense saw the diverse products and projects, such as the Integrated Training System for Military Pilots PILLAN II, being developed by the Chilean National Aeronautics Company (ENAER) along with its subsidiary DTS located in Hall B, and then went to Hall D where the staff of the Aero Photogrammetry Service (SAF) of the Group of Space Operations (GOE) talked about topics related to space technology.

Then, they moved to Hall E, where the Chilean Air Force stand is placed, which includes the Aviation School, the Specialties School of the Presentation Group, among others. They also learned about the world’s first 100% sustainable radar station of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC), which is in the Hall G, as well as multiple services offered by national and international exhibiting companies.

It is worth mentioning that FIDAE, established worldwide as the Aerospace, Defense and Security Exhibition with the longest trajectory and recognition in Latin America is a multisectoral event. It covers Civil-Commercial Aviation, Defense, Airport Equipment & Services, Homeland Security, Aircraft Maintenance and Space Technology areas, as well as the UAV (RPAS) and Cybersecurity sectors.