With 15,000 employees at the Finkenwerder, Stade and Buxtehude sites, Airbus is the largest industrial employer in the metropolitan region of Hamburg. With 50 percent of all single-aisle deliveries (30 per month from 4 final assembly lines), Hamburg is known as the “home” of the Airbus A320 family. For the long-haul aircraft A350, large parts of the CFRP fuselages and wings are assembled here. For the “flagship” A380, the cabin installation, painting, and the majority of deliveries take place here. All Airbus tail units are manufactured at the Stade plant. In addition, Hamburg is the leading competence center for cabin development.

Hamburg has four Universities with aviation related fields of study: the Helmut Schmidt University (HSU - University of the Armed Forces), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW), Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) and the University of Hamburg (UHH).

Headquartered in Hamburg and with over 8,000 employees on site, Lufthansa Technik is one of the region’s largest employers. The company is the world market leader in the field of MRO (maintenance, repair & overhaul) with 30 subsidiary companies around the globe. Its Hamburg seat is renowned as a center of excellence for VIP modification (e.g. government aircraft) and for engine overhaul, as well as for the development of new business fields, such as digital aircraft and fleet analysis (“predictive maintenance”).

Hamburg belongs to the most renowned places for civil aviation research in the world. Prominent examples are the ZAL Center of Applied Aeronautical Research with over 260,000 sq ft and more than 30 partners, also the hosting the 2017-founded DLR institutes for system architectures and for MRO, Fraunhofer IAPT as competence center for 3D printing, as well as CFK-Valley in Stade as crystallization point for CFRP technology.

With over 17 million passengers per year, Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport is one of the most modern and of the fastest growing airports in Germany. At the same time, “HAM” is the oldest civil airport in the world still operating at its place of origin.

More and more young companies populate the aviation site of Hamburg. They are supported by institutions like Airbus BizLab, TUHH Startup Dock or TuTech . ZAL TechCenter is also a focal point for startups like Jetlite, Synergeticon or 3D.aero. Further fields of aviation also boast young companies, such as the Hamburg-based airport app for travelers, FLIO.

With over 10,000 employees in ca. 300 companies, the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) build the backbone of our aviation region. The main focus of our suppliers and service providers lie in the supply chain for aircraft production and aircraft interiors. Company sizes range from small, family-owned business to multinational corporations. Many of them are represented by the associations Hanse-Aerospace and HECAS.

Short ways and a “hands-on”-minded economic policy: Our aviation industry benefits from the city-state structure. Hamburg’s institutionalized cluster policy is an essential instrument of Hamburg's economic development strategy, and was awarded by the EU as a "Model Demonstrator Region“. Our industry networks are in close communication with each other, supported by public institutions like Hamburg Invest and especially the Ministry for Economics, Transport and Innovation (BWVI).