As planned, automotive seats producer Adient (Plymouth, Michigan / USA; www.adient.com) and aircraft manufacturer Boeing have established a joint venture that will develop and manufacture a portfolio of aircraft seats – see Plasteurope.com of 28.09.2017. Adient Aerospace will be based in Kaiserslautern / Germany, along with production and a technical centre at the head office site. Adient is the majority stakeholder in the jv, with a 50.01% share, and the remaining 49.99% is held by Boeing. The customer service centre will initially be based in Seattle, Washington / USA.

Adient Aerospace wants to offer its seats to other manufacturers in addition to Boeing. In doing so, they want to eliminate bottlenecks that keep challenging the industry, Adient CEO Bruce McDonald said. According to Kevin Schemm, CFO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the move is part of the aircraft manufacturer's vertical integration strategy. Both companies expect the commercial aircraft market to grow from its current USD 4.5 bn to USD 6 bn in 2026.