Airbus

Innovation at the heart of a fresh approach

As the aviation world waited expectedly last month for the first flight of the latest commercial jet, the Airbus A350, the European planemaker’s chief executive Fabrice Brégier had a far broader agenda on his mind: securing the long-term future of the company, changing its culture and easing it along a path that will increasingly see it regarded as a “global” rather than simply “European” manufacturer. After little more than a year in charge, the transformation is already well underway.

The fact that major rival Boeing last year grabbed back the lead in aircraft sales for the first time in a decade with 1,339 gross orders against Airbus’s 914 doesn’t cause the European manufacturer’s president and chief executive Fabrice Brégier any sleepless nights.