Airbus will highlight a wide range of products, services and strong industrial partnerships in South Korea, covering the commercial aircraft, helicopter and defence and space markets, at next week’s Seoul International Aerospace and Defence exhibition 2019 (ADEX 2019).

The exhibition will be held from October 15 to 20 at Seoul Airport.

At the Airbus exhibition stand, the company will feature scale models of the A350-1000 widebody airliner, the A400M military airlifter, the weather independent imaging radar Earth Observation satellite TerraSAR-X and the tactical unmanned aerial system VSR700.

On display is a dedicated area where visitors will get an immersive experience navigating through a variety of simulated scenarios with Airbus products via virtual reality, HoloLens and 3D holographic projections. The company will also be featuring goggle presentations of the H145, H160 and H175 helicopter products used in various missions.

South Korea is a key customer base for Airbus, with success across the company’s commercial aircraft, helicopters, military and space product lines.

In the commercial aircraft market, there are some 140 passenger aircraft in service with airlines in the country, with another 50 on order for future delivery. The aircraft in service cover the entire Airbus product line, including the A220, A320 Family, A330, all-new A350 XWB and the A380 superjumbo.

There are about 60 Airbus helicopters in service in South Korea, while three of the four A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport on order have been delivered to the Republic of Korea Air Force.

Airbus has also been supporting the country’s space activities. The company designed and manufactured South Korea’s first geo-stationary satellite – GEO-Kompsat, developed the first geo-stationary ocean imager, and co-developed three Earth observation satellites.

South Korea is a key market for Airbus, well illustrated by the company’s strong and growing cross-border industrial partnerships in the country. Today, components produced by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Korean Air Aerospace Division (KAL-ASD), and small and medium enterprises such as AeroSpace Technology of Korea (ASTK), are installed on Airbus’ various commercial aircraft product lines.

Airbus and KAI are also partners on the Surion utility helicopter and Light Civil Helicopter/Light Armed Helicopter (LCH/LAH) programmes. Today, more than 100 Surion helicopters have been delivered to the Korean army and parapublic operators, while the first LAH prototype completed its maiden flight in July 2019, targeting to enter service for the Korean army by 2023.

Airbus’ sourcing activities are worth $600 million per year for the local economy and support over 6,000 highly skilled Korean jobs. – TradeArabia News Service