Airbus CEO says next airplane will be "evolutionary" not "revolutionary"

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said during its summit event on March 24, 2025, that its next airplane will be “evolutionary” rather than “revolutionary”. 

“There will be a significant step forward with the next generation of planes and we're looking at technologies that will make a significant difference,” said Faury. “Evolutionary and maybe not revolutionary — even if an open rotor, in my view, is quite revolutionary. That's one of the things we are looking at with CFM International.”

Faury said during the event that next jet would tie into its net zero 2050 ambitions, noting the progress on SAF had been “slow”. 

He added that the goal of producing a hydrogen model, ZEROe, with a planned entry into service in 2035 has been slowed. He said: "We don't have the hydrogen ecosystem and we don't have the development of green hydrogen or decarbonised hydrogen at scale for when we need the [hydrogen-powered] plane to enter into service. To some extent, we have come to the conclusion that we would be wrong to be right too early. The time is not ripe. 

“We continue to believe in hydrogen. We're absolutely convinced that this is an energy for the future of aviation, but there's just more work to be done first."

Faury said Airbus also continues to strive towards its net zero 2050 ambitions.

He said: “I don't think we are wrong to continue to pursue net zero by 2050 probably the way it's going to be achieved will be different. Maybe it's going to take a bit more time, but let's not be shy in the ambition. Let's let's keep focused on it.”

He further added that there was still new technologies and solutions to be found that would accelerate aviation reaching its goals.