Airbus exec: Most CIOs in Europe will not finish SAP ECC6 migration by 2030

Steven

Airbus exec: Most CIOs in Europe will not finish SAP ECC6 migration by 2030

Summary

Airbus is undertaking a large-scale migration of its fragmented SAP estate to S/4HANA, and is also considering cloud-based deployments. The company still runs older SAP R/3 4.6 and ECC 6.0 systems across parts of the business; some functions (finance, materials management and parts of Airbus Helicopters) have already moved to S/4HANA.

Catherine Jestin, EVP Digital at Airbus, warned that many European CIOs will not complete the ECC6-to-S/4HANA migration by 2030. SAP’s standard support for ECC6 ends in 2027 (extended paid support runs to 2030, and SAP may offer further extension to 2032 for customers with joint roadmaps).

Key Points

  1. Airbus runs a patchwork of legacy SAP systems (R/3 4.6 and ECC6) and faces a substantial migration task to S/4HANA.
  2. Some Airbus divisions have already migrated; the majority of the estate remains to be moved.
  3. SAP ends standard ECC6 support in 2027; extended paid support is available until 2030, with possible extension to 2032 for customers who present a roadmap.
  4. Gartner data: 39% of SAP’s ~35,000 ECC customers worldwide had not migrated as of Q4 last year.
  5. Heavy customisation (extensive ABAP) has complicated upgrades; Airbus is reverting to SAP standard to simplify future upgrades and capture more value.
  6. Airbus is looking at cloud-based S/4HANA to access newer SAP modules (IBP, BTP), but data sovereignty and national-security sensitivity mean a sovereign cloud is required for certain data.
  7. Organisations that do not present a migration roadmap risk losing SAP support; third-party support providers like Rimini Street remain an alternative for holdouts.

Context and Relevance

The article highlights a sector-wide timing problem for large enterprises running SAP ECC6: a looming support deadline, low migration uptake, and the tactical challenge of converting heavily customised systems into a maintainable standard. For CIOs and IT leaders this is critical — it affects risk, compliance, upgrade cost, and strategic choices about on-premise versus sovereign cloud deployments.

Broadly, this sits at the intersection of ERP modernisation, cloud adoption, and data-sovereignty politics in Europe. The story underscores why many organisations are treating migration not simply as a technical upgrade but as an opportunity to simplify processes and reduce custom code before moving to S/4HANA.

Why should I read this

Short version: if you touch SAP, run an ERP programme or report to a CIO — this is a wake-up call. Airbus lays out the scale of the job, the pitfalls of doing a lift-and-shift, and how data sovereignty drives cloud choices. We’ve read the detail so you don’t have to — but you should definitely act on the implications.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/12/11/airbus_exec_sap/