ILA 2024: Pioneering Aerospace

Overview and activities

ILA 2024, one of the largest and most important aeronautics and space trade fairs in Europe, took place in Berlin from 5 to 9 June 2024 under the motto ‘Pioneering Aerospace’. This trade fair is a central meeting point for the international aeronautics and space industry, politics and science to exchange information on the latest developments, innovations and challenges in the industry. The focus was particularly on innovations, new technologies and sustainability. This year, the German federal state of Bremen and Aviaspace Bremen e.V. once again presented the City of Aerospace Bremen/Bremerhaven at the trade fair.

Participation of the City of Aerospace Bremen/Bremerhaven

The City of Aerospace Bremen/Bremerhaven was represented at the ILA with three booths:

1. Northern German Chalet: A cooperation between the Northern German aeronautics and space associations and BavAIRia e.V. under the motto ‘One North. Many Strengths’, regional strengths were presented at this chalet (Chalet East 22-24).
2. ESA Commercialisation area in Hall 4: This booth was aimed at space-related startups and offered a platform for innovations and young companies. It was also the meeting point for the ESA BICs, ESA Technology Brokers and ESA Business Ambassadors. The ESA Commercialisation booth had been organized by ESA BIC Northern Germany on behalf of ESA.
3. Booth of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany (BMWK) booth in Hall 2 with the COOPERANTS programme: COOPERANTS supports cooperation and networking between various players in the space industry. The GAIA-X infrastructure, which promotes a secure and trustworthy data infrastructure in Europe, was also exhibited at this booth (Hall 2 | 220).

ESA Commercialisation Stand in Halle 4 (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn)

Activities of Mayor Dr Andreas Bovenschulte and Minister Kristina Vogt as well as the City of Aerospace Bremen and Bremerhaven

Dr Andreas Bovenschulte, Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and the Minister for Economic Affairs, Ports and Transformation, Ms. Kristina Vogt, were actively represented at the ILA.

04 June 2024: Québec-Canada Networking Reception at the Canadian Embassy. Around 70 people from research institutions and industry came together to consolidate existing collaborations and initiate future ones.

05 June 2024: Minister Kristina Vogt attended the opening of the ILA Space Pavilion at which Dr Anna Christmann held the opening speech. Vogt then opened of the ESA Commercialisation area in Hall 4 and subsequently attended the ESA BIC Pitching Session. Further visits were made to companies such as Drees & Sommer, MaiaSpace and AKKODIS. The afternoon included talks with the Dutch Embassy on expanding co-operation in the aeronautics and space sector. Kristina Vogt, Minister for Economic Affairs, Ports and Transformation: ‘Bremen has established itself as a leading centre for aeronautics and space in Europe and is also well equipped for future challenges. Bremen-based companies are making a significant contribution to climate protection and digitalisation. Whether in green flying, UAS, environmental monitoring or the removal of space debris, Bremen startups and institutes are among the best in the world and are proud to exhibit at this year’s ILA.‘

06 June 2024: The focus was on the ILA Space Day. Minister Vogt visited companies such as Airbus DS, ArianeGroup, Diehl Aerospace, Liebherr-Aerospace and OHB. Meetings with representatives from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) during the airshow were also on her schedule. A meeting to expand cooperation with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and an ESA BIC pitch session also took place. The evening ended with the Northern German Evening Reception, which was held in a hangar at the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport. This meeting was jointly organized by the German federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. The evening was hosted by Bremen/Bremerhaven City of Aerospace under the motto: ‘100 years of aviation in Bremen’.

The traditional student excursion to the ILA also took place on 6 June, organized by the ZARM e.V. support association together with AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V., the University of Bremen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences and the EUROAVIA association. The trip was made possible by the financial support of a number of aeronautics and space companies based in Bremen and Bremerhaven, including Atlas Air Service AG, Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, ZARM, OHB System AG, rg-asc aerostructure consulting, b.r.m. IT & Aerospace GmbH, DSI Aerospace GmbH, ECOMAT e.V., WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH and Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH.

07 June 2024: On this day, Mayor Bovenschulte visited ArianeGroup, the Airbus Chalet and the Airbus Moveables Center Germany as well as ESG Elektronik und Logistik GmbH and Rheinmetall. The day concluded with a BDLI panel on the topic of ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Digtialisation and AI in Aerospace – From Reasearch into Product Application at ECOMAT Bremen’, in which Dr Caroline Lange from DLR took part as consortium leader of the Gaia-X lighthouse project COOPERANTS. Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte: ‘The large presence of Bremen companies at the ILA emphasizes once again: Bremen is not only a traditional centre for aviation, but Bremen is the number one space city in Germany, perhaps even in Europe. More than 140 companies, from global players to innovative startups, around 20 scientific institutes and a total of 12,000 employees contribute to this. The aeronautics and space industry make Bremen to the technology centre that it is today.’

Exhibitors from Bremen

The following companies from Bremen were represented at the ILA:

– Airbus DS Airborne Solutions GmbH

– Airbus GmbH – Premium AEROTEC Division

– b.r.m. IT & Aerospace GmbH

– benntec Systemtechnik GmbH

– BREMEN/BREMERHAVEN – CITY OF AEROSPACE C/O AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V.

– DSV Air & Sea Germany GmbH

– ESA BIC Northern Germany

– esploro projects GmbH

– Fraunhofer AVIATION & SPACE

– Fraunhofer IFAM

– Hanseatische Waren Handelsges. mbH & Co. KG

– NVL B.V. & Co. KG

– OHB SE

– Prewest Dr.-Ing H.-R. Jung GmbH

– Sigma Aerospace Metals

– TRIGO ADR Germany GmbH

– DLR

– Polaris

Summary

ILA 2024 was a great success with broad participation from the City of Aerospace Bremen/ Bremerhaven. The next ILA will take place in 2026 and promises to be another major event for the aeronautics and space industry.

The City of Aerospace and the states of Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein jointly organised the North German Evening Reception on the occasion of ILA Berlin 2024. The motto was ‘100 years of aircraft construction in Bremen’ and the celebration took place at the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Welcome by Kristina Vogt, Minister for Economic Affairs, Ports and Transformation (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Under the motto ‘Pioneering Aerospace’, 600 exhibitors from 31 nations presented their high-tech products and research projects. Over 350 speakers discussed the future of the industry on four stages, focusing on climate-neutral flying, safety, advanced air mobility and space travel (© BDLI).

Dr Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy, Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Startups (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Connecting Space Regions: Meeting at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Berlin (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Jannis Balke).

ESA BIC Pitch Session “Space Applications” in Halle 4, Pitches aus Deutschland, Frankreich und Italien (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Signature of the extension agreement ESA BIC Northern Germany Mecklenburg-Vorpommern:  Thorsten Rudolph (AZO), Reinhard Meyer, Minister of Economics, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labour of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Minister Kristina Vogt (from left to right). In the background: Rene Kleeßen (DLR) and Holger W. Oelze (AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V.) © AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

The ESA BIC Northern Germany Pitch Sessions provided a stage for entrepreneurs such as Caroline Albert (Nebumind) (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ von Glahn).

Group photo with the moderator and the panel (from left to right): Daniel Reckzeh (Airbus Operations GmbH), Dr Johannes Riemenschneider (DLR), Isabell Gradert (Airbus Operations GmbH), Dr Kai Lindow (Fraunhofer IPK), Dr Caroline Lange (DLR) (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Julian Hofhans).

The panel on ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Digtialisation and AI in Aerospace – From Research into Product Application at ECOMAT Bremen’ at the Aviation Future Lab Stage. From left to right: Daniel Reckzeh (Airbus Operations GmbH), Dr Johannes Riemenschneider (DLR), Dr Caroline Lange (DLR), Isabell Gradert (Airbus Operations GmbH) and Dr Kai Lindow (Fraunhofer IPK) (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Julian Hofhans).

The COOPERANTS consortium presents itself at the BMWK stand with the smart service application ‘Holowork’ [from left to right Jan-Luca Kirchler (DLR), Dr Birgit Suhr (DLR) and Dr Caroline Lange (DLR)] (© DLR).

The excursion is aimed at students on the ‘Master Space Engineering’, ‘Master Systems Engineering’ and ‘Master of Aerospace Technologies’ degree programmes with the aim of showing the young adults the range of job prospects in the aerospace sector (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

Signing of a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between ECOMAT Bremen and the Kobe Economic Development Corporation (Japan) – as part of the ILA Berlin.
The background to this is the intention to intensify cooperation. Two visits to ECOMAT are already planned for 2024 (© AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V./ Justin von Glahn).

About Bremen Bremerhaven – CITY OF AEROSPACE

Aeronautics and space sectors are the central key industries in the German federal state of Bremen as part of the innovation strategy of the German federal state of Bremen 2030 and markets themselves under the claim Bremen Bremerhaven – CITY OF AEROSPACE. Four organizations in the German federal state of Bremen work together to implement the operational goals of the innovation strategy Bremen 2030.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation creates the financial and organizational framework for the design and implementation of the aeronautics and space industries strategy.

AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V. oversees the network and participation in innovation projects necessary for the implementation of the operational goals of the innovation strategy.

The Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH (BAB) as state development bank, handles the German federal state of Bremen aeronautics and space research program. BAB Starthaus supports startups and young companies and integrates them into the startup ecosystem of the state of Bremen.

WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH supports the activities of the Bremen Bremerhaven CITY OF AEROSPACE through trade fair and event organization. The claim BremenInvest fosters the internationalization of the industry. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) supports companies with questions relating to innovation and internationalization.