For the past 10 years, the world leader in aeronautics has been using data as a strategic lever for transformation, in order to optimise production, enhance its industrial resilience, and prepare for its move to a sovereign cloud.
©Ardan Fuessmann
Difficulties encountered with the engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney did not prevent Airbus from recording record profits in 2025. Certainly, the European aircraft manufacturer – the world number one ahead of its American rival Boeing – had to revise downward its targets for increased production of the A320 family, but its capacity to ride out industrial unpredictability has been enhanced by the data-focused transformation it began almost 10 years ago.
“Without these digital tools, Airbus could not have achieved the size it has in the current economic climate,” says Jonas Murby, Partner at AeroDynamic Advisory, aeronautic-sector consultants based in Michigan, USA. The consultant believes that the digital transformation is more than just a lever for optimisation: it has become a key component in resilience to a particularly complex global supply chain.
From the A350 crisis to Skywise
The story begins in 2015. Facing production problems with the A350 programme, Airbus joined forces with US-based Palantir, a specialist in massive-scale data analysis, in order to make more effective use of its business data. “Airbus really began thinking of data as a strategic asset in 2015, when it was able to solve the A350 production problems,” says Jonas Murby.
This initial step rapidly expanded into a far more ambitious plan: Digital Design, Manufacturing and Services (DDMS). Its aim is to create a shared digital environment in which design, fabrication and maintenance data are available to every part of the business and to its partners.
“Skywise is a shared platform where airlines actually contribute data rather than simply analysing what they find”
Jonas Murby, Partner at AeroDynamic Advisory
In 2017, Airbus reached a new milestone with the launch of Skywise, a collaborative data management platform developed with Palantir. Today, more than 50,000 users have access to this digital environment, which covers the entire aircraft life cycle and includes tools for design, production, predictive maintenance, air operations, and fuel efficiency.
“The primary objective was to make data available in a ‘data lake’* in order to break down organisational silos,” explains Jonas Murby. He believes that the main difference between Airbus and Boeing is the open nature of the platform. “Skywise is a shared platform where airlines actually contribute data rather than simply analysing what they find.”
Data-driven performance
This strategy is now producing tangible results. According to Jonas Murby, the first benefit was a 33% reduction in lead times for the A350. Other indicators demonstrate the operational impact of this approach: 20% fewer readjustments to production lines; an 80% reduction in wiring harness assembly times; over 90% automation in purchasing; and predictive maintenance meant hundreds fewer flights disrupted.
These benefits stem from the cross-functional application of data. Airbus now uses real-time analysis to manage its assembly lines, logistics, supplier network, and airline maintenance operations.
For Nicolas Sekkaki, Senior Vice President Global Cloud Practice at computing infrastructure service provider Kyndryl and the former chairman of IBM France, the effects of these advances extend far beyond the technology sphere. “The mastery of data and its governance have become crucial, all the more so with the rise of artificial intelligence, which requires massive volumes of high-quality data to train it.”
But the value of data is not derived solely from amassing it. “It is essential that the value found in data nourishes the ecosystem in which each partner contributes and derives a benefit. The Skywise project is absolutely aligned with this approach.” For Nicolas Sekkaki, this approach implies that all stakeholders share the same governance rules and ethics on data use, whether for advanced analytics or artificial intelligence.
A risk management tool
In addition to the productivity gains, massive-scale data processing has produced a risk management tool. In a sector where many thousands of suppliers are delivering millions of parts across assembly lines worldwide, access to a consolidated overview is a decisive advantage.
“Skywise has given Airbus broader and deeper coverage of its supply chain, with a more comprehensive overview of its suppliers, their circumstances, their capacities, and any actions required,” notes Jonas Murby. But he adds that “this is no miracle solution,” as the persistent problems with some equipment suppliers, notably Pratt & Whitney, would certainly indicate.
“The most pressing issue remains how infrastructure is controlled and the ability of companies to select their partners according to their business needs and applications”
Nicolas Sekkaki, Senior Vice President Global Cloud Practice at Kyndryl
Nevertheless, he believes that these data management tools have considerably limited the consequences of successive crises. “Without these tools, having to manage thousands of suppliers and millions of parts a week using traditional methods would have made the post-Covid period far more damaging.”
This capacity for anticipation is part of a broader industrial strategy. Airbus has simultaneously been rolling out its DDMS (Digital Design, Manufacturing & Services) programme, which aims to connect all digital design, production and service platforms together to facilitate data exchange between different areas of the business and its industrial partners. It is also exploring the potential of AI, advanced analysis, quantum technology and enhanced connectivity to improve its entire industrial cycle.
The digital sovereignty challenge
Having built its strategy around Skywise and Palantir, early in 2026, Airbus launched a new project to tackle digital sovereignty. The European group has initiated a call for tenders for the migration of some of its most critical applications (ERP, manufacturing operation systems, product life cycle management tools, CRM, etc.) to a so-called “sovereign” European cloud. The contract, expected to be worth more than €50 million over up to 10 years, suggests a change in priorities for the manufacturer.
For Nicolas Sekkaki, this development reflects a problem that exists well beyond Airbus. “Currently, almost 80% of these technologies are American in origin. Under these conditions, digital sovereignty remains a purely relative concept.” He believes that the real question is not simply the supplier’s nationality but the control they exert over infrastructure. “The most pressing issue remains the mechanisms controlling infrastructure and data, and the ability of companies to select their partners according to their business needs and applications.”
All of which is leading manufacturers to review their selection criteria. “The central question is a simple one: who controls what, and how?” Nicolas Sekkaki advocates an approach based on “business and digital resiliency,” which identifies weak points liable to affect business activity and prepares contingency measures. “Reversibility becomes a key requirement: if a stakeholder in the ecosystem fails, the business must have an alternative solution to hand.”
This approach also applies to artificial intelligence projects. “It’s now possible to train models in the cloud using artificial data, then deploy them to locally controlled ‘on-premises’ infrastructure** with real data.” This approach strengthens data protection and minimises the energy costs relating to AI infrastructure.
Transformation is far from complete
But the choice of a sovereign cloud will not erase 10 years of investment in Skywise. In February 2026, Airbus also renewed and extended its multi-year partnership with Palantir, whose platform remains the foundation of its data strategy. “Airbus now probably has no practical alternative to Palantir,” says Jonas Murby. “To rebuild an equivalent platform would require considerable investment.”
The European aircraft manufacturer is therefore prioritising a pragmatic trajectory based on multi-cloud architecture that combines sovereign solutions with more conventional infrastructure depending on the applications concerned. This gradual approach gives European suppliers time to improve their cloud service offerings.
Fundamentally, the data strategy adopted by Airbus illustrates the direction of travel for some major manufacturing groups: data is not just a lever for operational performance; it has become a strategic asset affecting competitiveness, resilience and technological sovereignty. In a period of generalised reindustrialisation, acknowledging this change could well inspire the entire European manufacturing industry.
===
*A data lake is a centralised data repository associated with big-data infrastructure. It enables a company or institution to import and store large quantities of data of multiple types and from multiple sources in one place.
**Computing or software infrastructure is known as “on-premises” when it is hosted and maintained by a company’s in-house IT department.
11/10/2026
