Team size: +650

What are the most significant cases, projects or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

In April 2025, Airbus entered into a definitive agreement with Spirit AeroSystems for the acquisition of industrial assets in the United States, France, Morocco, and the United Kingdom. The Airbus Legal team worked hand-in-hand with our operations teams to reach this agreement, which involved complex negotiations with several parties (including Boeing) and stakeholder engagement across the jurisdictions where the assets are located. Since then, the team has worked extensively to secure the multiple regulatory approvals needed for the closing of the transaction. 

The Airbus legal team is also playing a key role in discussions around a proposed European satellite consolidation project with two other parties. This proposed project aims to create a leading European player able to better compete on the global stage. It involves complex negotiations with other major industry players and , engagement with all relevant stakeholders, including from a regulatory perspective. 

Lastly, the Airbus legal team has worked closely with our Operations and Finance teams in the US and Europe to address the risk posed by tariffs to our global operations. 

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

As a global company in the aerospace and defence industry, we face multiple challenges and are always working to ensure we are resilient and can weather any crisis. Firstly and insofar as possible, we try to anticipate potential risks and prepare contingency planning. In the case of tariffs for instance, the Legal team led a cross-company task force (or multifunctional team, MFT) to prepare for potential tariffs. The task force was created 6-12 months prior to implementation of tariffs, when it became clear that this could be the policy of the new US administration.

We were able to mobilise an extensive number of internal and external stakeholders to assess our operational and regulatory exposure and prepare remediation prior to the implementation of tariffs. When crises arise, we work closely with business teams to help manage and mitigate risk. Again, in the case of tariffs, the Airbus legal team provided regular written guidance to the company’s management and organised regular meetings to understand the impact and implement mitigation measures. 

Given the current geopolitical shifts and growing uncertainties around international free trade, has your company’s risk profile evolved, and are you taking measures to address these challenges?

As a global company and in the current geopolitical context, many of the risks we face are both political and legal in nature. In January 2024, Airbus integrated its Public Affairs teams into the Legal and Compliance function to address this challenge. By doing so, we have been able to create increased synergies on topics that both teams were working on including: tariffs, EU regulation on AI and sustainability, sanctions, export controls and strategic M&A transactions involving government or regulatory approvals. The creation of this joint team has improved our ways of working and increased resilience. We plan on further building these synergies in the year ahead, through the creation of a joint competence strategy and training plan. 

AI has been taken seriously as a potentially revolutionary technological change in the legal world for a number of years now. Has it had a meaningful impact in how your legal team works in this time?

AI plays a growing role in the day-to-day work of Airbus’ legal teams. We have sought to build a participatory rather than “top down” approach to embed this new technology into our ways of working. We notably held an “AI legal hackathon” during which Airbus legal professionals from different teams worked on creating custom AI tools in our GenAI system (Google Gemini).

We see extensive areas where this technology can provide value –from contracts, to IP, to investigations and compliance reporting. In addition to the work we are doing internally, we have also engaged closely with different legal technology providers to identify other AI-based innovations. We believe that AI has strong potential, provided that it is implemented in a trustworthy manner. To this end, we are also co-leading a Trustworthy AI Steering Committee with our Digital colleagues to ensure that AI at Airbus is developed safely, ethically, and legally.