Christian Scherer

Christian Scherer
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	Duisburg, Germany
Nationality	German, French
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Airbus
Known for	Former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft
Education	University of Ottawa École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris

Christian Scherer (born 1962) is a German-French business executive who served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial Aircraft business of Airbus, the European multinational aerospace corporation. A career aerospace industry figure with decades of experience spanning commercial sales, defence, and executive leadership, Scherer rose through the ranks at Airbus to become one of its most prominent leaders, overseeing the company's flagship commercial aircraft division during a period of strong demand, supply chain challenges, and strategic decisions about the future of the company's product line. He held the CEO role until the end of 2025, when he was succeeded by Lars Wagner, formerly of MTU Aero Engines. During his tenure as CEO and earlier as Chief Commercial Officer, Scherer was instrumental in managing Airbus's order book and navigating customer relationships across the global aviation industry.

Early Life

Christian Scherer was born in 1962 in Duisburg, a city in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, situated at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. Duisburg, historically one of the major centres of Germany's industrial heartland, was at the time a significant hub for steel production and heavy industry. While specific details of Scherer's family background and childhood have not been widely documented in public sources, his upbringing in a bilingual and bicultural environment at the crossroads of Germany and France would later inform his career in the European aerospace industry, where he operated fluently in both languages and cultural contexts.

Scherer holds both German and French nationality, a dual identity that reflects the broader Franco-German character of Airbus itself, a company whose origins lie in the postwar European effort to create a competitive civilian aircraft manufacturer through cross-border collaboration among France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Education

Scherer pursued higher education on both sides of the Atlantic, attending the University of Ottawa in Canada and the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP), one of the oldest and most prestigious business schools in France and Europe. The University of Ottawa, a bilingual institution offering instruction in both English and French, provided Scherer with an international academic grounding. ESCP, founded in 1819, is a leading European business school known for its emphasis on international management and cross-cultural business skills. This combination of North American and European education equipped Scherer with the linguistic versatility and international perspective that would characterise his subsequent career in global aerospace.

Career

Early Career at Airbus and ATR

Scherer's career in the aerospace industry spans several decades and includes roles across different segments of the Airbus group. Prior to his appointments in senior commercial and executive roles, he accumulated extensive experience in both the defence and commercial sides of the business. He held positions at ATR, the Franco-Italian regional aircraft manufacturer that is a joint venture between Airbus and Leonardo S.p.A., where he served as CEO. His time at ATR provided him with deep knowledge of the regional aviation market and experience in leading an aircraft manufacturing organisation.

Scherer also held senior roles within the defence and space divisions of the Airbus group, giving him a breadth of experience across the company's diverse portfolio of products and services. This cross-divisional experience was considered an asset as he moved into increasingly senior roles overseeing the commercial aircraft business.

Appointment as Chief Commercial Officer

In September 2018, Airbus announced the appointment of Christian Scherer as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), the executive responsible for leading the company's global sales and marketing efforts for commercial aircraft. The appointment came during a period of significant leadership changes at the company.

Scherer replaced Eric Schulz, who had held the CCO position for less than a year before departing, adding to what observers described as a complex period of leadership turnover at Airbus. Bloomberg News reported on the replacement, noting the rapid change at the top of the sales organisation. The Wall Street Journal also covered the appointment, characterising it as occurring "amid turbulence in senior ranks" at the European planemaker.

As CCO, Scherer was responsible for managing Airbus's relationships with airlines, lessors, and other customers worldwide, and for overseeing the company's order campaigns at major air shows and trade events. The role placed him at the centre of one of the most competitive commercial rivalries in global industry — the contest between Airbus and Boeing for dominance in the large commercial aircraft market.

CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft

Scherer was subsequently elevated to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Airbus's Commercial Aircraft division, the company's largest and most important business unit, responsible for the design, manufacture, and sale of the full Airbus family of single-aisle and widebody passenger and freighter aircraft, including the A220, A320neo family, A330neo, and A350 programmes.

As CEO of the commercial aircraft division, Scherer was tasked with overseeing the company's efforts to ramp up production of its best-selling A320neo family of single-aisle jets, which had accumulated a backlog of thousands of orders from airlines worldwide. This production ramp-up effort was complicated by persistent supply chain difficulties affecting the broader aerospace industry in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, with shortages and delays in the delivery of engines, structural components, and other parts constraining Airbus's ability to meet its ambitious delivery targets.

Strategic Product Decisions

During his tenure as Commercial Aircraft CEO, Scherer was involved in several significant strategic decisions regarding the future development of the Airbus product line. Among the most closely watched was the question of whether to develop a stretched version of the A350-1000, which would create a larger variant of the widebody aircraft to compete more directly with Boeing's 777X family in the upper end of the long-haul market.

In November 2025, Scherer publicly confirmed that Airbus was studying a potential larger version of the A350 and indicated that the company was seeing customer interest across the industry. Speaking at the Dubai Airshow, he stated that Airbus could build a stretched version of the A350-1000 and was observing interest "everywhere" in such an aircraft. Reuters also reported on the study, noting Scherer's comments about the potential development.

Another major product decision under consideration during Scherer's tenure was the potential stretch of the Airbus A220, a smaller narrowbody aircraft that Airbus acquired through its takeover of the Bombardier C Series programme. In November 2025, also at the Dubai Airshow, Scherer discussed the development of a potential A220-500 stretch variant, indicating that customer consensus was pointing toward a shorter-range version of the stretched aircraft. He also addressed the engine situation for the programme, noting the desire for a second engine option beyond the existing Pratt & Whitney GTF: "So far we have a Pratt engine, I'd love to have another one," Scherer stated.

Partnerships and Training Initiatives

Under Scherer's leadership, Airbus Commercial Aircraft also pursued partnerships to support the growth of its customer base, particularly in rapidly expanding aviation markets. In September 2025, Scherer participated in the launch of a pilot training hub in Gurugram, India, established in partnership with Air India. The event was attended by India's Minister of Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, as well as Air India's Managing Director and CEO, Campbell Wilson, reflecting the strategic importance of the Indian market to Airbus's growth plans.

Succession and Departure

On 10 July 2025, Airbus announced that Lars Wagner, then CEO of MTU Aero Engines AG, would succeed Scherer as CEO of the Commercial Aircraft business, effective 1 January 2026. The announcement noted that Scherer would remain in his post until the end of 2025 to ensure a smooth transition.

The leadership change was covered by multiple industry outlets. Air Data News reported on the transition, noting the significance of the Commercial Aircraft division as Airbus's most important business unit. The French business newspaper La Tribune described the leadership change in dramatic terms, characterising it as a "coup de théâtre" — a sudden and unexpected development — as Airbus replaced the head of its commercial aircraft division.

Leeham News and Analysis, a specialist aviation publication, noted that the incoming CEO would face a number of significant challenges, including ongoing supply chain issues and strategic decisions regarding the A220 stretch and open fan engine technology.

Personal Life

Christian Scherer holds both German and French nationality. He was born in Duisburg, Germany, and has spent much of his professional career based in France, where Airbus has its corporate headquarters in Toulouse. Further details of his personal life, including information about his family, have not been widely documented in public sources.

Recognition

Scherer's career at Airbus placed him at the centre of some of the most significant developments in the global commercial aviation industry during the 2010s and 2020s. His appointment as CCO in 2018 was covered by major international financial and business publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, reflecting the visibility and significance of the role within the aerospace industry. As CEO of the Commercial Aircraft division, he represented Airbus at major international events including the Dubai Airshow, where he made public statements regarding the company's product strategy that were reported by Reuters, Aviation Week, The Air Current, and other outlets.

His involvement in the Air India pilot training hub launch in Gurugram alongside India's Minister of Civil Aviation further illustrated his role as a senior representative of Airbus on the world stage.

Legacy

Christian Scherer's tenure as a senior executive at Airbus encompassed a period of intense competition with Boeing, record-setting order backlogs, and the operational challenge of ramping up aircraft production in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As CCO and subsequently as CEO of the Commercial Aircraft division, he was responsible for managing and growing one of the largest commercial order books in aviation history.

His public statements regarding the potential A350 stretch and A220-500 development in late 2025 signalled strategic directions that his successor, Lars Wagner, would inherit and be expected to advance. The characterisation of his departure by La Tribune as a "coup de théâtre" suggested that the leadership change was not universally anticipated and attracted significant attention within the French and European business press.

Scherer's career trajectory — from roles at ATR and in the defence sector to the top of Airbus's commercial aircraft business — illustrated the value the company placed on cross-divisional experience and the breadth of knowledge required to lead a complex, multinational aerospace enterprise. His dual Franco-German background mirrored the binational foundation of Airbus itself, and his multilingual education at institutions in Canada and France reflected the international character of the aviation industry in which he spent his career.