FAMEX 2017 (Feria Aeroespacial México)

The Feria Aeroespacial México (FAMEX) was created in 2015 at the initiative of Mexico's Secretariat of National Defence (SEDENA), which runs it through the Mexican Air Force. From the outset its home has been Military Air Base No. 1 at Santa Lucía, in Zumpango (State of Mexico), now next door to Felipe Ángeles International Airport. Its founders set out to give Mexico a stable international platform to attract foreign direct investment, create jobs in the national aeronautical community and showcase an aerospace industry that already had strong clusters in Querétaro, Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja California.

That first edition gathered 240 companies from 16 countries, displayed 32 aircraft, generated some 3,500 business meetings and drew around 32,000 visitors. From there the fair settled into a biennial rhythm in odd-numbered years and kept growing.

In 2017 the second FAMEX made the leap that turned it into Latin America's leading aerospace fair: 505 companies from 35 countries, 48 aircraft, 4,600 business meetings and 45,000 visitors.

The 2019 edition introduced the guest country of honour, a distinction first given to Canada: the Royal Canadian Air Force brought a C-130J Hercules and a C-17 Globemaster III to Santa Lucía, and attendance rose to 52,000.

The fourth edition was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Planned for the spring, it was moved to 22–25 September 2021, with the United States as guest country of honour. Even so it gathered 317 exhibitors — companies, universities and armed forces from several countries — and 88 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, including United States Air Force types; the specialist press put attendance at 54,000.

In 2023, with France as guest country, the fair consolidated its role as a business platform: according to the figures published by the Mexican aviation press, the fifth edition reached 703 exhibitors, participation from 51 countries, 72 aircraft on display, more than 6,000 business meetings and close to 105,000 visitors.

The sixth edition, held from 23 to 26 April 2025, marked the fair's tenth anniversary alongside the 110th anniversary of the Mexican Air Force and the 80th of the end of the Second World War. Brazil was the guest country of honour and brought the Embraer C-390 Millennium; Querétaro was the guest state. President Claudia Sheinbaum opened the fair, accompanied by Defence Secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles and Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.

The organisers closed with 337 exhibiting companies, 2,514 B2B meetings, close to 50,000 trade visitors over the three business days (25,000 on opening day alone), six state governors and 48 ambassadors. The static display held 74 aircraft from the air forces of Mexico, the United States, Spain, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, among them the American F-35 Lightning II, KC-135 and C-130J, the Spanish Air and Space Force A400M and more than twenty Mexican Air Force aircraft (T-6C Texan II, F-5F Tiger II, UH-60 Black Hawk, H225M Cougar and C295). The public air show on Saturday 26 April drew more than 205,000 people, headlined by the USAF F-35 Demo Team, the Spanish A400M, the civilian teams Black Wings and Aeromann and the parachutists, with the debut of the Mexican "Guerreros Águilas" team. General Disraeli Gómez Herrera, head of the organising committee, highlighted deals closed with Pakistan, Syria, the United States and Canada.

The seventh FAMEX is scheduled for 20–24 April 2027 at Santa Lucía under the motto "Connecting the future". It was officially launched on 30 April 2026 during the Tulum Air Show, in a ceremony led by General Gómez Herrera and Gustavo Cabrera Velázquez, head of the aeronautical and aerospace sector at the Secretariat of Economy, who handed over the letter authorising the fair to use the "Hecho en México" mark. The commander of the Mexican Air Force, General Román Carmona Landa, closed the event.

Italy will be the guest country of honour — its ambassador, Alessandro Modiano, took part in the presentation — with the focus on helicopters, aircraft, avionics and radar systems from an industry led by Leonardo. Hidalgo, represented by its Secretary of Economic Development, Carlos Henkel Escorza, will be the guest state. The organisers expect 20% more exhibitors and aircraft than in previous editions and have invited Canada and the United States to attend with their aerobatic teams, which remains unconfirmed. As of September 2026 neither the daily programme nor the flying line-up had been published.