Airbus sources around 80 percent of the value of its products from the supplier market. Its supplier pages put external sourcing volume at 53 billion euros in 2023 and the supplier base at more than 18,000 companies. At the end of 2025 the commercial backlog stood at a record 8,754 aircraft, inside an order book of 618.8 billion euros, of which 61.4 billion was defence.
That is the opportunity. The obstacle is that Airbus is not one buyer and not one legal system. Airbus SE is incorporated in the Netherlands and holds its Annual General Meeting in Amsterdam, while the industrial weight sits in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Contracts are signed by national entities under their own governing law, and Airbus publishes separate terms of purchase under France, Germany, England and Wales, Spain and Hungary law. There is no single procurement front door, and the thing that most resembles one is an email address.
How the buying process actually runs
Registration is an email followed by an assessment, not a portal you can join. Airbus publishes a four step Potential Supplier Identification process: send your company information to globalsourcing@airbus.com; get contacted if what you sell is aligned with a need; sign an NDA and be assessed, which may include a detailed questionnaire and a supplier visit; and only then possibly be invited into a call for tender. Airbus keeps prospect information for three years before asking for an update. Nothing in that sequence is triggered by you.
Direct and indirect procurement are effectively two different companies. Flying parts run through ePROC Next Generation for calls for tender and then AirSupply for forecasts, purchase orders and quality notifications. AirSupply is the BoostAeroSpace hub led by Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Safran and Thales, delivered as software as a service by SupplyOn. Non flying goods and services, where nearly every software and IT vendor belongs, are handled by Airbus General Procurement through Click n'Source and Click n'Order, which run on Coupa. Airbus's instruction is blunt: do not create yourself an account in the Coupa portal before receiving an invitation. The tooling assumes a buyer already wants you.
Quality has document numbers, and your certificate has to be visible to Airbus. The Airbus Supplier Requirements set, ASR documents A1501, A1503, A1504 and A1505, carries the quality, engineering and supply chain conditions. Airbus requires a quality management system compliant with the IAQG 9100 series, meaning 9100, 9110 or 9120, certified through the IAQG Industry Controlled Other Party scheme, states that only certifications registered in the Online Aerospace Supplier Information System are valid, and requires suppliers to grant it access to their own OASIS records. Nadcap accreditation is mandated commodity by commodity.
Export control is European by default and American by exception. The Airbus Defence and Space France standard terms of purchase require compliance with United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canadian and other applicable national export control, sanctions and embargo laws, and oblige the supplier to classify each item and file an electronic export control classification declaration, the eECCD, on the Airbus supplier portal, declaring whether the item is civil, military or dual use. ITAR appears narrowly and on request, through a Form F Airbus ITAR Part 130 declaration for vendors. Where the contracting entity is American, for example Airbus Helicopters Inc, the full US regime of the EAR, ITAR, customs rules and OFAC sanctions applies. Assuming ITAR everywhere is as expensive a mistake as assuming it nowhere.
The Supplier Code of Conduct is a gate, not a leaflet. Airbus states that adherence is one of the mandatory criteria assessed during supplier selection, and its FY2025 Modern Slavery Statement calls it a mandatory commitment for any supplier in a call for tender. Contracts also require cooperation with an evidence based Sustainability Maturity Assessment run by a third party. For 2025 Airbus reported 336 highest risk suppliers assessed and 47 on site assessments.
Who owns what, so you know where your deal belongs
You will not be selling to these people. Their remit tells you which division your deal belongs to, and whose priorities it has to survive two or three levels down.
| Name | Role | What it means for a vendor |
|---|---|---|
| Lars Wagner | Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial Aircraft business | A220, A320, A330 and A350 production, ramp-up and services |
| Michael Schoellhorn | Chief Executive Officer, Airbus Defence and Space | Where national security clearance, export classification and government customers decide eligibility |
| Matthieu Louvot | Chief Executive Officer, Airbus Helicopters | A separate division with its own executive committee and buying rhythm |
| Catherine Jestin | Executive Vice President Digital | Group digital, data and IT standards, the remit most indirect software deals align with |
| Thomas Toepfer | Chief Financial Officer | Where a multi year commitment has to make sense against cash flow and dividend targets |
Guillaume Faury is Chief Executive Officer and chairs the Executive Committee. Names taken from Airbus's own governance pages, verified 12 September 2026. Senior roles change; check at source.
You cannot sell into this account from the bottom
In 2025 the commercial aircraft business recorded 52.6 billion euros of revenue, Airbus Helicopters 9.0 billion and Airbus Defence and Space 13.4 billion, on a group total of 73.4 billion, with 165,294 employees and 3,153 million euros of self financed research and development.
Industrial timescales set the altitude your entry point has to reach. Airbus has publicly targeted an A320 Family rate of 70 to 75 aircraft a month by the end of 2027, rate 13 for the A220 and rate 12 for the A350 in 2028, and rate 5 for the A330 in 2029. Anything sold as making that ramp-up safer or cheaper is judged against a plan running to the end of the decade, and that decision is not taken in the middle of an organisation. Mapping the real buying committee matters more than the quality of your sequence.
The layer that matters is below the public names, and at Airbus it is unusually hard to see
Somewhere inside 165,000 people are the programme leads, plant managers and category buyers who can sponsor a purchase. Three things make them unusually hard to map.
The same function exists in four countries at once. Airbus runs equivalent engineering, operations and procurement roles in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, under different national law and different contracting entities. The person with the problem and the entity that signs the purchase order are often in different countries.
Defence and Space has its own national boards, and Airbus directors sit on them. Non-Executive Directors Jean-Pierre Clamadieu and Catherine Guillouard sit on the board of Airbus Defence and Space Holding France, and Stephan Gemkow and Dr Doris Höpke on the board of Airbus Defence and Space GmbH. Oversight for a defence deal can live in a national structure that never appears on the group leadership page.
The space perimeter is being redrawn. In October 2025 Airbus, Leonardo and Thales signed a memorandum of understanding to combine their space businesses into a new company, with Airbus holding 35 percent and operations expected to start in 2027. Any contact map of Space Systems and Space Digital has a short shelf life.
The board is a published second degree map
Airbus publishes its twelve directors and their current mandates.
Rene Obermann is Chairman of the Board and formerly chief executive of Deutsche Telekom; he is currently Chairman of Warburg Pincus Europe and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of IONOS Group SE. Airbus announced in April 2026 that he will step down as Chair on 1 October 2026 and that Amparo Moraleda will succeed him. Moraleda, formerly general manager of IBM Spain and Portugal, currently sits on the boards of A.P. Moller-Maersk, CaixaBank and Vodafone.
Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, formerly chief executive of Solvay, is currently Chairman of the Board of ENGIE and a director of TE Connectivity. Stephan Gemkow, formerly chief financial officer of Deutsche Lufthansa, is currently Vice Chairman of Amadeus IT Group and a director of Flughafen Zürich. Catherine Guillouard, formerly chairwoman and chief executive of RATP Group, is currently Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Ingenico and a director of Air Liquide and Lottomatica. Dr Doris Höpke, formerly a member of the board of management of Munich Re, is currently on the Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz AG.
Mark Dunkerley, formerly chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines, is currently a director of Volotea. Antony Wood, formerly chief executive of Meggitt and formerly President of Aerospace at Rolls-Royce, is currently Chairman of Chemring Group and a director of National Grid. Irene Rummelhoff is currently Executive Vice President for Marketing, Midstream and Processing at Equinor. Henriette Hallberg Thygesen is currently chief executive of the Danish defence group Terma and a director of ISS and Vestas. Oliver Zipse is Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
If anyone in your network is senior at ENGIE, TE Connectivity, Amadeus, Air Liquide, Mercedes-Benz, Vodafone, CaixaBank, Maersk, National Grid, Chemring, Equinor, Terma, Vestas, BMW or IONOS, there is a checkable two hop path to an Airbus director. Almost nobody runs that query.
The other connector routes
Shared customers, including states. France, Germany and Spain are simultaneously shareholders, through Sogepa, GZBV and SEPI, and customers of Airbus Defence and Space. An airline or defence ministry champion who has watched your product work is a more credible referrer than anyone on your payroll.
European industry bodies, which Airbus people run. Guillaume Faury was President of GIFAS until July 2025 and President of ASD, the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, from June 2023 to June 2025. Antony Wood was President of the UK trade association ADS Group from 2020 to 2022. These bodies are where the sector's senior population is reachable.
The consortium partners. Dassault Aviation, Safran and Thales co-founded AirSupply with Airbus, and tier one suppliers already inside a programme sit in the same reviews as the people you want to meet.
No published corporate alumni programme. Airbus does not run the kind of public alumni network some banks do, so the former-employee path exists only in your own address book. Finding it is what a relationship intelligence platform does.
And then you have to get to your own connector
This step fails more introductions than the external ask does. A path running through one of your own directors who shares a board with an Airbus director is close to unrepeatable, and you still have to persuade them to spend a piece of a relationship built over years. Ask twice in a quarter and you will not be asked again. Two of your reps approaching the same connector about the same account in the same month is common, and invisible in most companies.
Three rules for the introduction itself
Ask for the division, the country and the entity. "An introduction to whoever owns supplier quality data at Airbus Defence and Space in Spain" is actionable. "An introduction to Airbus" is not.
Write the blurb your connector will forward. They will not write your pitch. Give them a paragraph they can send without editing, because the forwardable email is the whole craft.
A warm path starts the clock, it does not skip it. You will still complete the supplier assessment, the Code of Conduct commitment, the sustainability assessment and the eECCD classification. What you gain is a real conversation with the person who owns the problem, months earlier. Multithreading is not optional across four countries and three divisions.
See the warm paths into Airbus
Everything above describes the problem: eighteen thousand suppliers and a buying process that splits by contracting country. What it does not tell you is which of your own relationships already reaches inside. That is a question about your network, not theirs, and it is the one most teams answer from memory.
Boomerang maps the warm paths your company already has into accounts like Airbus, across your team, your customers, your board and investors, and your partners. It then drafts the ask, routes it through the right connector and tracks it to a booked meeting. Book a 15-minute walkthrough and see it run against your own target accounts.
Frequently asked questions
How do you become a supplier to Airbus?
Airbus publishes a four step Potential Supplier Identification process. You send your company information to globalsourcing@airbus.com, the sourcing team contacts you only if your products or services match a need, you sign an NDA and go through an assessment that may include a detailed questionnaire and a site visit, and you may then be invited into a call for tender. Airbus keeps prospect information for three years before asking for an update. Portal access follows a buyer invitation rather than self registration.
Does ITAR apply if you sell to Airbus?
Only where US content or a US contracting entity is involved. The Airbus Defence and Space France standard terms of purchase require compliance with United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Canadian and other national export control and sanctions laws, and require the supplier to file an electronic export control classification declaration, the eECCD, stating whether the item is civil, military or dual use. ITAR is handled separately through a Form F Airbus ITAR Part 130 declaration requested when relevant. Where the buying entity is American, such as Airbus Helicopters Inc, the full US regime of EAR, ITAR, customs rules and OFAC applies with flow down to your sub tier suppliers.
Who makes technology buying decisions at Airbus?
Purchases originate in a division and, often, in a national legal entity, not centrally. Lars Wagner leads the Commercial Aircraft business, Michael Schoellhorn leads Airbus Defence and Space and Matthieu Louvot leads Airbus Helicopters, with group digital and IT standards under Executive Vice President Digital Catherine Jestin and Guillaume Faury as Chief Executive Officer. Software and services are bought by Airbus General Procurement through Click n'Source and Click n'Order on Coupa, which is a different organisation from the direct procurement teams that buy flying parts.
How long does an enterprise sale to Airbus take?
Assume multiple quarters, and longer if the deal touches flight hardware or defence programmes. Beyond the assessment and tender stages, suppliers face the Airbus Supplier Requirements documents, IAQG 9100 series certification registered in OASIS, Nadcap accreditation where mandated, export control classification, a mandatory Supplier Code of Conduct commitment and a third party Sustainability Maturity Assessment. Airbus also publishes production rate targets running to 2029, so a purchase is judged against a horizon far longer than your fiscal year.
Can you cold email an Airbus executive?
You can, and the usual outcome is silence rather than rejection. Airbus sources around 80 percent of the value of its products externally and works with more than 18,000 suppliers, so it attracts every vendor in the category, and its published process routes supplier approaches to a sourcing mailbox rather than to executives. Senior calendars across four countries are actively managed. The message that gets a real reading is the one forwarded by someone the recipient already trusts.
