Airbus, President of Region Europe and Head of Commercial Europe for Commercial Aircraft, Johan Pelissier at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit, Airlines in Transition 2026

Transcript

Johan Pelissier:So first, Europe at Airbus is the region which is quite vast. It's coming from— going from Greenland, Denmark until Central Asia and down to Turkey and Israel. So it's more than 57 countries and it's quite a very diverse, but also very fragmented. We have 200 airlines within this region, and actually 130 of them are operating less than 10 aircraft. At the same time, we have huge groups operating hundreds of different types of aircraft. And when you look and you deep dive a little bit more, you have 20 aircraft groups which are operating more or less more than 80% of in-service fleets. So very fragmented, but also a region which is under consolidation. We have seen ITA, SAS, and now TAP is under privatization. At the same time, and I think it was just discussed during this nice event of CAPA in Berlin, it's a region which has a very high seasonality in the world, actually the highest seasonality, meaning that all our airlines would like to have aircraft before the summer because the summer is the bread and butter of each and every airline, which also means that in the use of the aircraft, they have to see how to go throughout the winter. And last, I would say it's a very dynamic region. We have also a lot of startups, startups especially in Caucasus, in Central Asia, in Romania, but also in more of the western part of Europe. Typically in the UK. So a very dynamic market in which we at Airbus are doing quite well because this is our original region. Our roots are here in this region where home nations are UK, Spain, France, and Germany. And obviously we are enjoying a great market share, 53% on the widebody and actually more than 60% for the single-aisle? Yeah, first of all, the A220 has also in the Europe region a lot of success. We have today more than 10 operators operating 170 aircraft already, and we are serving 400 routes. So a very successful program, a young program, only 10 years as we just discussed on the panel. And why is it so successful in our region? The versatility is one of the key strengths. It can go for very short routes. Typically, Swiss is operating the routes of 20 minutes between Stuttgart and Zurich, whereas you have a much longer route of 7 hours between, for example, Riga and the Canary Islands from airBaltic. So a very versatile aircraft which offers very good economics. A superior unit seat cost and also a great passenger experience. We have a very nice cabin and all the passengers having flown the A220 are usually very happy about it. A very specific cabin with this 5-seater in the row that makes that aircraft so special. So of course, the lessors are looking at the global market as well, not only the European market. So beyond the market I mentioned for Europe, the 10 operators, we have actually 30 operators for this aircraft worldwide. We have today close to 1,000 orders and we have delivered 500 aircraft very recently. So that's already a testament that this program, while being still new, is very successful. Second, it is a program, as I mentioned, offering very good economics, greater range, a great cabin. And definitely for, for lessors, it is becoming a very speculative order that they could really make that aircraft work everywhere in the world. This versatility is again playing a big role for them. And last but not least, we are continuing to invest into this program. And so this is also a reason why lessors are Also investing and following. It's Airbus being behind, and all the new things that we are bringing to the program are additional reasons why the lessors want to continue and invest into that. So I think, in a nutshell, a very dynamic market in Europe, and we will see more and more A220 in the European skies. Well, first of all, we are very happy to be again with CAPA Events. It provides us a great connecting platform with many airlines, not only from Europe. For us, taking care of Europe, definitely important to connect with our European airlines and customers. But I think for our colleagues from our central marketing, it's also a great opportunity to, to see where we are in terms of markets, especially in the very complex and challenging geopolitical environment we are today, to, to understand the global market, how it's going on, and be in a position to discuss with airlines beyond Europe in each and every of your events. So thanks a lot, CAPA, for giving us that opportunity.

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