The aircraft industry landscape has undergone fundamental changes in recent years. Four global trends in particular are responsible for this: population growth, urbanization, climate change, and globalization & digitization. All four trends offer FACC enormous opportunities for growth.
Population growth
Current forecasts predict that the world population will grow by approximately 25 percent by 2050. At the same time, around 80 percent of the global population have never set foot on an airplane. These two trends combined therefore offer enormous long-term growth potential for the entire aircraft industry. After all, traveling and discovering foreign people, countries and cultures is a basic human need. Given these developments, the demand for aircraft is also expected to increase, as is the demand for economical and sustainable solutions for environmentally friendly air travel. With its innovations in the field of lightweight construction, FACC offers exactly the right solutions.
In order to grow successfully in this core market, FACC is further expanding its position as an agile partner to the aircraft industry and contributing significantly to the further development of the entire sector. Moreover, with locations in its main target markets, the company is able to operate precisely where demand arises.
Urbanization
Another megatrend is increasing urbanization. By 2050, approximately 70 percent of the global population will be living in urban agglomerations. As a result, the number of megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants will also grow, thus increasing the importance of point-to-point air traffic solutions, which in turn is likely to increase the demand for flexible passenger jets. FACC has been highly active in this area for many years, and is continuously developing, testing, certifying and producing new cabin concepts that provide answers to many questions. These include hygiene technologies for in-flight health that enable bacteria- and virus-free air travel.
However, large agglomerations also require new local traffic concepts, which could include electrically powered, autonomous passenger drones. Through its first collaborative projects with a Chinese start-up, FACC has secured a pioneering role in the field of Urban Air Mobility.
Climate change
Climate and environmental protection are increasingly becoming decisive economic factors. This trend is also shaping the aircraft industry, which is faced with the need to reduce its ecological impact in the medium and long term. Key priorities include cutting emissions in production and the operation of aircraft, implementing green technologies and using biological materials. To respond to this trend, FACC has just the right technologies and know-how at its disposal. With its wide range of lightweight construction solutions, the Group is contributing to making air traffic increasingly environmentally friendly.
In production as well, FACC takes due account of sustainability and the conservation of resources throughout the entire development and life cycle of its products. In this context, the longevity of aircraft systems is at the top of the list, followed by the recyclability of materials within a circular economy, and the development of the materials and processes of the future.
Globalization & digitization
The two megatrends of globalization and digitization are steadily increasing the demand for satellite communication. This development represents a source of great market potential for FACC. This is because the expansion of the necessary infrastructure in the Earth’s orbit is increasingly likely to be carried out by private space companies in the future. This, in turn, will increase the demand for economically manufactured modules for rockets and launch systems. In this area, too, FACC can draw on its many years of experience in the development and production of highly resilient lightweight components, thus making it an ideal partner for the private space industry.
The contract to develop a component for the new Ariane 6 launch vehicle of the European Space Agency is just the beginning for FACC. Over the coming years, the company intends to further develop its lightweight construction expertise in precisely this direction, and to use its state-of-the-art facilities for the production of space technology in small and medium series as well.