Post by Paul Perera

Airbus Christian Scherer, the CEO of Airbus Aircraft (the Commercial Aircraft division) until 1 January 2026, works his last day at Airbus today. Scherer retires after one of the most successful periods of Airbus. He replaced Eric SCHULZ as head of Commercial Aircraft sales in 2018, managing commercial sales through COVID and its unprecedented growth post-COVID until January 2024, when he became CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. On 30 October 2024, Airbus announced that Scherer would be replaced by Lars Wagner, previous CEO of MTU Aero Engines, from January 2026. Scherer is a native of both Germany and France, with studies in Canada and France. He started his career at Airbus Industrie in 1984 as a Commercial Contracts Manager. After a period at Airbus Americas, he became Vice President, Commercial Aircraft Leasing Markets, in Toulouse. In 2003, Christian Scherer became the Deputy Head of Commercial Aircraft, then Head of Strategy and Future Programs at Airbus, responsible for defining Airbus’ long-term strategy with programs like the A320neo to his credit. In 2012, he was appointed Head of Sales & International Operations at what later became Airbus’ Defense and Space. In October 2016, he was appointed CEO of ATR. Scherer returned to Airbus Commercial Aircraft as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) in 2018.