The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions.

The new entity subsequently acquired full ownership of its subsidiary, Airbus Industrie GIE, a joint venture of European aerospace companies originally incorporated in 1970 to develop and produce a wide-body aircraft to compete with American-built airliners.

[11] Airbus' headquarters are legally registered in Leiden, Netherlands, but daily management is conducted from the company's main office located in Blagnac, France.

In addition to other subsidiaries pertaining to security and space activities, EADS owned 100% of the pre-existing Eurocopter SA, established in 1992, as well as 80% of Airbus Industrie GIE.

Under the new rule, the A300 was able to operate over the North Atlantic, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean more efficiently than the trijets and four-engined jet aircraft offered by competitors.

At that time, Airbus wanted to offer four-engined jet aircraft to allow for longer transatlantic and transpacific flights.

A second narrow-body jet was added to the product list in 2018 when Airbus gained control of the Bombardier CSeries programme, and rebranded it as the A220.

The A400M is sized between the American-made C-130 and the C-17 transports, and while it can carry heavier loads than the C-130, its turboprop engines allow it to retain the ability to use rough landing strips.

The A400M was developed for European NATO members Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK, as an alternative to relying on foreign aircraft.

During development, the A400M programme faced delays and cost overruns;[46][47] with customer nations stepping in offer additional subsidies.

The Defence and Space division also market and assembles the Airbus C295, a smaller tactical transport aircraft, that was designed and initially manufactured by the Spanish aerospace company CASA.

[76][77] On 16 December 2024, it was reported that Airbus has leased 650,000 sq ft of office space in Bengaluru's Whitefield to build its Global Capacity Centre.

In October 2005 the British Ministry of Defence warned European politicians to stop, as it saw it, interfering in the corporate governance of EADS.

[97] Airbus was the first aerospace business to become ISO 14001 certified, in January 2007; this is a broader certification covering the whole organisation, not just the aircraft it produces.

[104] In July 2004, former Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher accused Airbus of abusing a 1992 bilateral EU-US agreement providing for disciplines for large civil aircraft support from governments.

[107] In January 2005 the European Union and United States trade representatives, Peter Mandelson and Robert Zoellick respectively, agreed to talks aimed at resolving the increasing tensions.

[110] WTO ruled in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus had received improper government subsidies through loans with below market rates from several European countries.

The French government's actions were also under investigation; The state-owned bank Caisse des Dépots et Consignations (CDC) bought part of Lagardère's 7.5 % stake in EADS in April 2006, allowing that latter to partially escape the June 2006 losses.

[114] In 2024, Airbus received negative press attention for increasing their investments in Aviation Industry Corporation of China, a Chinese company that provides weapons to the Myanmar junta.

[119] It was claimed that Airbus had admitted that it had "rendered assistance" to around thirty senior officials, including defence force chief General Siphiwe Nyanda, to obtain luxury vehicles.

[124] The French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had been jointly investigating irregularities in Airbus marketing practices since 2016, in particular the activities of agents Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Austria,[h] but also China, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Kuwait, Turkey, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, India, Colombia and Nepal.

[124] In July 2016, SFO opened a criminal investigation into "suspicions of fraud, bribes and corruption" after Airbus informed British authorities of a failure to disclose the role played by some intermediaries facilitating the sale of aircraft.

Airbus was required to provide this information in order to benefit from export credits, which the British, French and German governments had suspended.

In March 2017, the PNF subsequently opened a preliminary investigation into "suspicions of fraud and corruption in civil aviation activities" in cooperation with the SFO.

[124] The allegations included that from 2012 onwards Airbus was responsible for recruiting and remunerating intermediaries to influence the award of civil and military contracts.

Payments worth hundreds of millions of euros in alleged secret commissions were made and numerous sales including in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Indonesia, Austria, China and Mauritius were under suspicion of bribery.

[125][verification needed][126] The investigation focused on the Airbus, Strategy and Marketing Organization (SMO), the department responsible for negotiating sales contracts and which, La Tribune reported as having "a network and an incredible influence around the world."

Directed successively by Jean-Paul Gut and Marwan Lahoud, the SMO was dissolved in 2016 under the new executive director, Thomas Enders, as part of a "clean hands" operation.

[i] This revealed that two Turkish intermediaries had claimed payment of commissions due in connection with the sale of 160 aircraft to China valued at US$10 billion.

[j] In January 2020, French, British and American courts validated three agreements between Airbus and the PNF,[128] the UK SFO,[124][129] and the US DoJ.