Boeing and Adient released that their airplane seat joint venture Adient Aerospace is operational after securing regulatory approvals.
The companies also appointed Alan Wittman as Chief Executive Officer and named the team that will lead Adient Aerospace in addressing the aviation industry’s need for more capacity and quality in airplane seating.
Industry analysts forecast the commercial aircraft seating market to grow from approximately US$4.5 billion in 2017 to US$6 billion by 2026.
The joint venture between Boeing and Adient is developing a portfolio of seats for new airplane and retrofit configurations. Adient Aerospace has opened a customer service center in the Seattle, Washington area, and product development is underway in Kaiserslautern, Germany, as a continuation of work performed under an agreement the two companies signed in 2017. Adient Aerospace is initially developing lie-flat business class seating offerings for widebody airplanes.
Adient Aerospace CEO Wittman was most recently the director of Business Operations for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner program.
