Who owns Airbus?

Airbus SE, legally domiciled in the Netherlands with its operational hub in Toulouse, was formed in 2000 from the merger of the leading French, German and Spanish aerospace companies, and that heritage is still reflected in its shareholder structure. Unlike Boeing, which is an entirely private company, Airbus retains a significant public stake: the French and German states each hold around 11% of the capital through their respective industrial holding arms, while Spain controls around 4% through SEPI.

The rest of the capital, around three-quarters, trades freely on the Paris, Frankfurt and Madrid stock exchanges, held by institutional and retail investors worldwide. The three states do not appoint directors: since the 2013 corporate governance reform, the board has been independent, with rights set out in a shareholders' agreement that safeguards the national balance and limits cross-shareholdings. Even so, decisions such as workload distribution among factories or major programs still carry a clear political dimension. The CEO is Guillaume Faury, who has led the company since 2019.

This shared state-market ownership model stems from the political origins of the European project, conceived in the 1960s and 1970s to compete with the US industry without depending on a single nation. Public ownership has shrunk over time compared with the consortium's early years, but the three states still regard their stake as strategic, both for the industrial jobs Airbus generates and for its weight in the group's military and space programs.