Boeing and Adient’s aeroplane seat joint venture, Adient Aerospace, is now operational after securing regulatory approvals.

The companies also appointed Alan Wittman as Chief Executive Officer and named the team that will lead Adient Aerospace.

The joint venture between Boeing and Adient is developing a portfolio of seats for new aeroplane and retrofit configurations. Adient Aerospace has opened a customer service centre in Seattle, and product development is underway in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Adient Aerospace is initially developing lie-flat business class seating offerings for widebody aeroplanes.

Industry analysts forecast the commercial aircraft seating market to grow from approximately $4.5 billion (£3.4 billion) in 2017 to $6 billion (£4.54 billion) by 2026.

Open for business

Adient Aerospace’s CEO, Wittman, was most recently the director of Business Operations for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner program.

He said: “Adient Aerospace is now open for business, providing better customer and passenger experience with quality seats. Our focus is comfort, craftsmanship and operational excellence that will differentiate our products and services, all while offering more choice and better meeting the commercial airplane industry’s needs.”

Others named to the Adient Aerospace leadership team include:

• Jason Fahlbush (Adient), COO
• Jörg Kaib (Adient), CFO
• Gary Senechal (Boeing), VP of sales & marketing
• Stefanie Rautio (Boeing), VP of certification & regulatory compliance
• Frank Toenniges (Adient), VP engineering

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