In a story that has sparked global tech conversations, Airbus is once again in the spotlight for its prolonged and complicated effort to move away from Microsoft Office. The phrase “Seven Years Later, Airbus is Still Trying To Kick Its Microsoft Habit” originates from a November 26, 2025, report by The Register, which detailed the aerospace giant’s continued challenges in completing its migration to Google Workspace.
Airbus first announced the major shift in March 2018, outlining plans to migrate more than 130,000 employees from Microsoft Office to Google Workspace within 18 months. Former CEO Tom Enders described the switch as a push toward a more user-friendly interface rather than a cost-saving initiative.
Seven years later, the company’s workforce has grown to 150,000, and although more than two-thirds have transitioned, significant pockets of the organization remain dependent on Microsoft tools. Airbus executives now acknowledge the initial timeline was overly optimistic. Catherine Jestin, executive vice president of digital, described the 18-month target as “extremely ambitious.”
Several major barriers continue to slow Airbus’s departure from Microsoft:
● Google Sheets Limitations
Large-scale financial models containing up to 20 million cells still outperform in Excel. Finance teams and some engineering units are unable to replicate this performance in Sheets.
● Compatibility Gaps
Core commercial, procurement, and legal workflows depend heavily on advanced change-tracking features in Microsoft Office. Mixing Google and Microsoft tools creates document integrity issues. Google has promised 100% compatibility by 2026, but the gap remains today.
● Regulatory Restrictions
Airbus divisions handling military-classified data are legally prohibited from using cloud-based platforms. This forces continued reliance on on-premises Microsoft applications.
● Engineering Complaints
Anonymous engineers cited persistent compatibility issues, saying Excel remains essential for complex calculations and legacy models.
Despite the shift, Airbus still pays substantial, though undisclosed, licensing fees to Microsoft to support remaining teams.
Google has committed to improving Workspace’s enterprise capabilities. According to Jestin, upcoming updates will focus on larger file support, more functions in Sheets, and better traceability tools. The goal is to eliminate the recurring document mismatches that have crippled key workflows.
French media, including Numerama, Clubic, Le Monde Informatique, and Le Journal Économique, offered deep analysis, citing European concerns about sovereignty and tool reliability.
German (Golem.de), Russian (ServerNews), Turkish (Çözümpark), and Spanish tech feeds also reported the story, underlining global interest in large-scale enterprise migrations.
YouTube creators quickly picked up the narrative, publishing videos titled “Why Airbus Still Can’t Quit Microsoft” and “Airbus’ 7-Year Struggle to Leave MS Office”. These videos highlight technical limits, compliance barriers, and the heavyweight dominance of Excel.
On X.com, posts from tech accounts like @slashdot, @TheRegister, and French commentators fueled discussions about digital dependency, cloud sovereignty, and the realities of corporate IT overhauls.
The Airbus saga illustrates the deep-rooted challenge enterprises face when attempting to break longstanding dependence on powerful legacy tools. For Airbus, Excel’s advanced capabilities, regulatory constraints, and compatibility issues have extended a planned 18-month transition into a seven-year saga with no clear end date.
As of late 2025, Airbus is still firmly caught between two ecosystems, proof that even global aviation giants struggle to escape the gravitational pull of Microsoft Office.
