Sitting Down With Airbus North America CEO Robin Hayes

Robin Hayes is the chairman and CEO of Airbus in North America, leading the company’s commercial aircraft, helicopter, and space operations across the United States and the Americas. A former CEO of JetBlue and veteran of British Airways, Robin brings more than three decades of aviation experience to Airbus — where he now champions American manufacturing, innovation, and workforce development from Mobile, Alabama, to Silicon Valley. A U.S. citizen since 2012, he’s passionate about building the next generation of aerospace talent and helping shape the future of flight in America. Robin sat down with AirVenture Today this week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025 to chat about Airbus’ presence at the event, as well as his thoughts on a number of other topics.

Q: You’ve just completed your first year leading Airbus in the United States What’s been most eye-opening or energizing about leading Airbus’ work across the country?

A: “Honestly, from a personal perspective, I've spent a lot of time just getting to know and understand the parts of Airbus that I didn't know before. So whilst as a customer I had had quite a lot of exposure with the commercial aircraft, commercial folks, the services guys, the team in Mobile, there was helicopters, space and defense, other parts of the Airbus team in the U.S. So really being focused on getting to know that, being really pleasantly surprised how much footprint Airbus has in the U.S. It's growing. Obviously I was quite familiar with Mobile, but the helicopter manufacturing in Mississippi, the satellite [arm of the company, I wasn’t]. So really, kind of the scale there was really quite impressive. So I wouldn't use the word ‘surprise,’ but that's been the work, really, of the first year. And then when you join Airbus, everyone says it takes you a year just to understand the general structure of it and everything that you do.”

Q: Airbus has a strong footprint here in the United States, but it’s not always fully recognized. What do you think people might be surprised to learn about your presence and impact across the country?

A: “Well, I think Airbus has, for quite a while now, taken the view that yes, we are a company that's headquartered in Europe, but we have a true commitment to a global footprint, and obviously the U.S. is a huge market, is a big part of that footprint. So really, just obviously the manufacturing that we do, but we have hundreds of engineers that support the global Airbus engineering footprint, in particular the areas of aerostructures and cabin interiors. We've got an innovation business out in California. We have a ventures business here, out in California. There are companies like Aeroval, which were acquired by Airbus Helicopters. So just the breadth of that, really.”

Q: You recently hit the 500-aircraft mark out of Mobile. What does that milestone mean for Airbus and for the region?

A: “So Mobile will be 10 years old in September. So [we] opened with one 320 line, then we added the 220 line, and now we're getting ready to open the second 320 line, and our U.S. airline customers really appreciate the ability to take delivery of aircraft out of Mobile. Plus, we've been exporting a small number of airplanes into South America, Latin America out of Mobile as well. So, I think just continuing to grow. ... Aviation doubles every 20 years, so that clearly needs more aircraft, and it also means aircraft that we're flying today need to be replaced, so there's a huge demand. So Mobile is really part of our commitment to the global footprint, and when the third line opens in Mobile, it'll make Mobile the fourth-largest commercial aircraft manufacturing facility in the world.”

Q: Where else are you seeing significant growth or innovation in the United States beyond commercial aviation?

A: “Obviously, helicopters are another important part of our business, and the difference to the commercial aircraft space is the breadth of different customers. It's a much broader customer set, because you've got every state, you've got EMS, you've got the state, you've got law enforcement, you've got tourism. You've got many different use cases, so there's a much larger number of customers, so I think continuing to make sure that we're serving our customers and we're meeting their needs of growth and replacement. And then also understanding on the space and defense side, given the commitment both to the U.S. in terms of what we spend, but also the commitment out of the EU to spend more on defense, making sure that Airbus is positioned to meet that increased need.”

Q: We heard that the Airbus’ SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) lead and Delta’s sustainability team spoke with EAA earlier this week regarding partnerships with U.S. agriculture to develop future fuels. From your perspective, what excites you most about where this is headed?

A: “Well, of course sustainable aviation fuel is part of the bigger focus on a more sustainable world, and by the way, it's always been the case in that industry. Fuel is the largest input cost most operators have, and so if you go back generations of new aircraft design, their number one goal has been around more fuel efficiency, and so that's always been in the DNA. And so, if you think about ... as the industry is growing, aircraft are getting more efficient, they're being more fuel efficient, they're reducing their carbon emissions. So there's the commitment to the new design, and our own commitment to the next generation of single-aisle airplane in the second half of the next decade. … Our commitment to looking at future fuels like hydrogen as a future source of aircraft, and then back to sustainable aviation fuel, because that's another part of that family of products. And so I think we'd all like to see it grow at a quicker rate, but I think it's really a great opportunity for agricultural communities to look at developing this as a feedstock that can grow staff over time.

Q: You hosted a forum event on Thursday about careers: “Lifting Futures in Aviation.” How is Airbus helping build the next generation of talent?

A: “So we as an industry have a massive challenge of making sure we have enough skilled and motivated workers or employees to come into the sector, not just Airbus, by the way. We can focus on the things we should be doing and are doing. There's a broader industry question. This is the industry that's going to double globally. We lost a lot of expertise with COVID, and still there's more ... More of the employee base will retire, so we have a massive challenge as an industry, whether you work in manufacturing, services, operations.

“So, how do we make sure that in the U.S. we capture that need and opportunity? And the type of manufacturing that aerospace needs is the high-value, added-value manufacturing that absolutely makes sense for a bigger U.S. footprint. So we have to work as an industry, and individually as companies to think about what we are doing, but also collectively. ... Universities is one, but also the opportunities for apprenticeships and other ways of getting into this industry.”

Q: How does Airbus see its role in supporting communities and responding to urgent needs beyond the hangar?

A: “Yeah, I think that when you have a presence somewhere, you have a responsibility to support that community, and I think Mobile, Alabama, is probably our best example but not our only example. But if you look at what we've done in terms of building programs there that go into schools and create educational awareness of what we're doing, partnering with local charitable events on causes that are important to our people, because that gives you a reach beyond the immediate. Because you want people, as they drive past the factory or facility, even if they don't work in it ... You want them to feel, ‘Yeah, Airbus is a great member of this community,’ and so I think that's extremely important to us.”

Q: For those here at the show this week, what should they check out at the Airbus booth?

A: “So people love swag, and they love Airbus swag, and we're like, ‘Let's raise money for a good cause.’ [All proceeds from Airbus merchandise sold at AirVenture benefit three charities: Airlink, EAA GirlVenture, and Homes for Our Heroes.] So yeah, that's new this year. Also, we have one of our H130 helicopters here, so that's great to showcase one of our products. We have our AQ, which is our innovation arm, with their flight test airplanes, and we do different types of flight tests in there. It's actually interesting. If you go in it, it's full of computers and machines. And then we have that little model of the Racer, which is a high-speed helicopter demonstrator. We don't have the real one here, so it'll never be a product, but it's testing the demonstration and what we can take for high-speed flying for medical, search and rescue, good things like that.”