Christian Scherer, the chief commercial officer at Airbus, reacted to the Air India tragedy ahead of the Paris Air Show.

Airbus SE has urged the aviation industry to enhance its safety culture following a tragic Air India crash involving a Boeing 787, underscoring the incident as a critical wake-up call rather than a competitive advantage.

Safety is in everything that we do, so the tragedy in India, we don’t see that in any way, shape or form as a competitive input,” Christian Scherer, who oversees Airbus’s commercial aircraft operation,

Speaking in Paris, Christian Scherer, Airbus’s head of commercial aircraft, dismissed any suggestion that the tragedy could offer a competitive advantage to one manufacturer over the other.

Airbus SE predicted the global commercial aircraft fleet will double in size to almost 50,000 planes over the next 20 years, spurred by rapid growth in markets like India, where a rising middle class increasingly takes to air travel.

India has emerged as a significant player in the global aircraft market. Since 2023, Air India has ordered 570 aircraft from both Airbus and Boeing. Meanwhile, IndiGo has ordered over 900 Airbus planes, which now includes an additional acquisition of 60 A350 widebody jets.

In those talks, Boeing is edging forward as the front-runner to sell more of its 777X jets, two of the sources said.

The plane manufacturer said that the growth in air travel will require 43,400 new passenger and freighter aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years.

Air India, in its current form, has maintained a more balanced fleet, having taken delivery of 122 Boeing aircraft and 114 Airbus planes between 2006 and 2025