Airbus Customer Days 2025: Expanding Horizons in a Dynamic World

Airbus recently hosted its Customer Days 2025, bringing together over 140 customers from 85 different airlines to discuss the future of aviation. The event featured ten airline speakers and was a platform for in-depth discussions on market trends, fleet strategy, technological innovation, and sustainability. Experts in the industry covered various topics at the event.

A Resilient and Growing Market leading to strategic fleet decision

One of the main themes of the event was how to navigate the "VUCA" (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world. Despite recent global challenges, such as supply chain issues, inflation, and geopolitical conflicts, the aviation industry is demonstrating strong resilience. Traffic has returned, and both the domestic and international markets are higher than pre-pandemic levels. Latin America is no exception, experiencing growth in RPKs (Revenue Passenger Kilometers) that exceeds the world average, reaching 113% and 108% of 2019 levels for the same month of March in the domestic and international markets, respectively.

These figures corroborate the latest Global Market Forecast, which previews a long-term forecast of doubling the global fleet and RPKs over the next two decades.

The event also served as a forum for insightful panel discussions. During these discussions, airlines emphasized on one hand their network resilience in such a VUCA world and, on the other hand, highlighted the role of Airbus to support the day-to-day operations. 

The Future of Flight: Innovation and Sustainability

The Customer Days also delved into the future, with presentations on technological innovation and sustainability.

The "Airspace" cabin took center stage, focusing on segmentation, connectivity and sustainability, giving clues to the audience on the future of cabin trends and ongoing research and development. Enabled and enhanced by the Airbus “Airspace” cabin, airline branding and passenger experience were also addressed as key topics by PriestmanGoode.

Beyond the cabin, sustainability was a core topic also addressed by Professor Paul Williams from the University of Reading who discussed the impacts of climate change on aviation, noting a 55% increase in severe turbulence over the North Atlantic since the 1970s. To address these challenges, Airbus is developing more efficient products and pursuing a multifaceted decarbonization pathway.

Finally, Airbus UpNext explained its exploration of new technologies through "demonstrators". The presented projects included HyPower, which tests hydrogen fuel cells; an "eXtra Performance Wing," which tests and validates wing technologies that improve and optimize the aerodynamics and performance of future aircraft; and Optimate, a smart automation system that supports automatic taxiing and enhances pilot assistance at airports.

These projects all contribute to UpNext’s mission of identifying disruptive aerospace trends and technology concepts and evaluating their potential as viable products; testing real-world applications for emerging aerospace technologies; and further accelerating traditional research cycles by developing proof of concept and completing both ground and flight testing with scale and speed.

For more information contact:
Damien STERNCHUSS
VP, Head of Airline Marketing
damien.sternchuss@airbus.com