"In 2017, Portugal defined the area of aerospace as a new ‘cluster’ that we want to develop in our country,” António Costa said during the inauguration of Airbus Atlantic Portugal, in Santo Tirso, in the district of Porto.

“Portugal currently has around 90 companies, with more than 18,000 jobs and a business volume of €1,700 million per year in the aerospace industry in different areas of the country,” he said.

Revealing that the country has the ambition to grow in this area, the minister recalled the approval of a national strategy for space with the creation of the Portuguese Space Agency.

"Under the Recovery and Resilience Programme [PRR], we have launched a great challenge to the business world and the scientific and technological system to organise themselves into groups to present innovative projects and two of the mobilising agendas that were approved focus precisely on this aerospace sector," he said.

One is related to the creation of a constellation of microsatellites and the other to a space traffic management system, he said.

Growing demand

António Costa also said that there has been a growing demand at all levels to qualify human resources in this area.

This year, he added, in the first phase of applications for higher education, the areas of aerospace engineering had the greatest growth.

There is also increasing development in this area in secondary and vocational education, he noted.

The Airbus Atlantic, specialised in aircraft components, inaugurated today a factory in Santo Tirso where it counts to reach 250 workers for the year, indicated the executive president of the company, Cédric Gautier.

The group currently has close to 130 workers in the unit, which began construction in 2020, and hopes to reach 250 by the end of 2023, according to the official.

At the moment, Airbus Atlantic Portugal produces A320 family front fuselage sections, A350 family front fuselage panels, as well as A320 family cargo door panels and frames, and "as the site develops to support single aisle construction, it will be taken to produce all the components for A320 family sections 11,12 and 13/14".