The Mexican Aerospace Industry started over 50 years ago, when the first companies set up factories to manufacture and assemble wings and aerostructures for planes built by North American Rockwell and components for Hughes Aircraft in the border city of Mexicali in the mid 60’s. Indeed, the industry has grown steadily and by the dawn of the 21st century manufacturers, universities, local, state and the federal government started taking steps to form a body that could identify the manufacturers, their products and their location.

The sector focus on several specialties such as Aeronautical, Space, Defense, Drones and MRO and by 2006 there were some 109 companies, of which 77.1% are manufacturers, 11.9% are in maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and 11% are engineering and design firms that represented exports of US$ 2.04 billion dollars.

The aeronautical industry is concentrated in regional clusters is located in 18 states across Mexico. The highest number of companies are located in Baja California (with 80 companies), followed by Sonora (64), Chihuahua (30), Queretaro (34) and Nuevo Leon (23). During these 10 years, the industry has experience a boom of over 18% annual growth in the numbers of companies and generating over 40,000 jobs. Altogether, by 2014 the sector had surpassed 320 companies, with sales and export of over US$ 6.36 billion dollars annually.

Currently, Mexico is the 6th supplier of aeronautical parts to the USA, ahead of Brazil, Italy, Israel and China. At the same time, Mexico is ranked 4th as destination of manufacturing investment in the aerospace sector behind China, India and the USA.