Airbus celebrates many milestones

Airbus is in a festive mood these days.

On June 13, I had the honor to celebrate the start of Azul A330neo operations, not just in Brazil, but in the Americas. Five years ago, we welcomed Azul to the Airbus family with the A330-200. In 2016, we were proud to join the celebrations for the A320neo's entry-into-service. And now, this A330neo will become part of Azul's growing fleet of seven A330ceo and 27 A320neo.

The A330neo represents the new generation of the most popular wide-body Family ever. Its exclusive "Airspace by Airbus" cabin will provide Azul passengers and crews the most modern in-flight products for the most comfortable flying experience. It is also the quietest cabin in its category. The arrival of this truly modern marvel of an aircraft in Brazil is also symbol of the dynamic evolution of the Brazilian aviation market.

On May 29, we started a 50-day birthday party to celebrate our 50th anniversary by showcasing key moments of pioneering progress throughout our dynamic past five decades of existence. To check out some of the most compelling developments in the aerospace industry, I invite you to learn more about our heritage by visiting our dedicated anniversary site, which will showcase stories through 17 July by highlighting the people and ground-breaking innovations that have driven our company.

On May 28, Airbus inaugurated its new office in Buenos Aires to strengthen its presence in Latin America and reinforce its commitment to the country. While we just opened the office last month, we have been present in Argentina for decades. In 1994 Aerolíneas Argentinas became an Airbus customer and today they operate a long-range fleet of 10 A330 and two A340. LATAM and JetSMART also operate in Argentina with their A320 Family aircraft.

Speaking of Argentina, we are rooting for Team V.A.C.A. from Argentina's Universidad Nacional de la Plata for placing in the final seven of the Airbus Fly Your Ideas (FYI) biennial competition, which offers students worldwide the opportunity to apply classroom learning and research to solve real-world challenges.  Latin America's have been excelling in FYI, consistently appearing in the final rounds of the competition.

Team V.A.C.A. developed an integrated service for stockbreeders, based on Earth observation, meteorological and IoT data applied to agriculture and aims to provide actionable information to stockbreeders on quality and quantity of pastures, number of animals in paddocks as well as the physical condition of cattle. I had the pleasure of meeting the four students and their academic mentor to wish them well before they left for Toulouse to work at Airbus' innovation and R&D facilities to further develop their ideas. On 27 June, Team V.A.C.A. will present their final project to Airbus experts and aerospace/academic world personalities as they compete for a share of the €45,000 prize.

Arturo Barreira is President of Airbus Latin America and Caribbean. Having led the Latin America and Caribbean sales team for the past six years, Barreira has driven the success of Airbus' regional commercial aviation division, playing a key role in cementing its place as the market leader in the region.