Urban air mobility is on the brink of taking to the skies above cities to offer a sustainable complement to ground transportation. But are cities and city inhabitants ready to welcome such a dramatic shift in their mobility mix? According to Vassilis Agouridas, Senior Manager Strategic Innovation at Airbus, the successful integration of urban air mobility hinges on co-creation among industry, regulators, cities, citizens and other stakeholders to find mobility solutions that deliver on the full spectrum of sustainability—environmental, economic and social.

With bountiful past experience as chief engineer of the A400M and A320 programmes, Daniela Lohwasser, Airbus’ new head of R&T in the CTO organisation is excited to help bring in the next chapter of the Airbus story with disruptive new technology and products. She believes that R&T have to be daring and work on the edge, and failing and learning fast is an essential part of that process.

Originally from Bangalore in India, Shashwath works as a Customer supply manager in Airbus Toulouse. Within the cabin furnishing department, his task is to ensure that the ordered parts arrive on time, and are properly allocated. “The interiors must be delivered to the quality and to the time as agreed with our clients”. Greatly inspired by previous Airbus CEO Tom Enders (who he met in person and has a birthday on the same day), joining Airbus has been his aim since watching the first A380 take to the sky. He filled in 75 applications on the career website. “Now I have my dream job".

"Although aviation is rather a male-dominated world, it has been my passion since I was a child. As a flight instructor for helicopters, fixed wings and gliders, I love to fly all of them, but I especially love to fly helicopters. When I joined the company, I started my Airbus career as marketing manager for the training centre newly established in Japan, in 2012. I have now moved to the operational division to become a pilot ground instructor. Studying state-of-the-art technology is what makes me passionate about my job."

“Working is more about being useful rather than being important,” says Jorge who has been with the company for the 13 years. He entered as a financial controller, and later decided to change his topic. “I enjoy working in HR. It is all about connecting people: making a new good network with people and trying to join forces for better working together.“ During his normal workday, Jorge is frequently switching between Spanish, English, German and French. Although the language competence has been a great help, he admits that this is not enough to succeed in HR. “If you are not humble, if you are not emphatic, if you are not flexible, then all these languages skills are not useful for anything.“

"The digitalisation of the shopfloor is undoubtedly a key factor capable of providing important improvements in relation to quality, efficiency, costs and the product" says María. Her goal is to incorporate digitalisation at the production plants of all the Airbus divisions. To get the real shopfloor experience she put on a set of overalls and spent a week there working with the operators. "You don't really understand what their work is all about until you put yourself in their position".

Designing the new generation of self-flying aircraft: this is the mission of Enrique. “In fact, our technology can take care of everything from just after the take-off until the landing,” he says. Originally from Colombia, he started in Airbus in 2017 as an intern, during his dual degree master studies in France. Once finished, he got the opportunity to continue the same project as an employee.

Originally from the Caribbean, she attended university in France on a scholarship, then completed her studies in Germany. Not familiar with Airbus at first, a strange looking plane called the Beluga caught her interest. Today Amanda designs and develops our next generation tools supporting the logistics domain and making proposals to best migrate from current IT logistic systems to newer digital ones.

‘I enjoy being a part of such a well renowned and prestigious company, I am proud to say that I am an apprentice at Airbus. I especially feel that when people are going on an aircraft and I can say -I help to build these-”. Want to experience a strong sense of pride for the work you do just like Jacob? Hurry up, applications for Craft Apprenticeships in Commercial Aircraft will close on 3rd March!

Born in China and raised in Germany, Ye has a bicultural background. She loves Airbus for its dynamic and diversity. Ye joined Airbus in 2009, she is responsible for major airframe components and works on many transfers, improvement projects at key Airbus suppliers covering activities requiring various skills: “We coordinate cross-functionally, monitor and drive changes at our suppliers to contribute to development and mitigate industrial risks. We work by targeting operational excellence through continuous improvement in everything we do.” 

Airbus promotes equal opportunities and supports people with both visible and non-visible (dis)ability. Different initiatives across the company are aimed at boosting awareness and above all encouraging dialogue on the important contribution employees with disabilities make to the company every day. Following the International Day of Persons with Disability, six apprentices and dual students share their experiences working in an inclusive environment at Airbus.

As a part of the Digital Transformation project, Marie focuses on the company’s business and its culture transformation. “What I loved about joining this team is that we all have the same ambition to transform the ways of working thanks to the digital tools we are developing!” Marie’s goal is to help Airbus employees flourish and be happy at work. To make it possible, she acts as an energizer of the company: “I am glad to contribute to create a better working environment”.

Marcus helps protect our company and our customers, working on Vulnerability Assessment/Management, IOC-Sharing, Threat Intelligence and Incident Response. “I very much enjoy the direct contact and support of internal and external customers. This gives me the chance to work on a variety of topics as a Cyber Security Analyst – from finding a company’s malware breakout, to detecting Internet abuse for illegal activities or analyzing millions of loglines to find that “one bad actor”, using diverse tools and techniques.”

"Diversity is one of my favourite aspects about working at Airbus. There are 130 nationalities in this company so it's impossible not to make friends from every corner of the world. I really enjoy the enriching experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds"