Active gust load alleviation can help realize reductions in structural weight and climate-relevant emissions of future transport aircraft by limiting peak aerodynamic loads experienced in flight. Fluidic concepts (Surface and Coandă jets) can help achieve this target as they have high lift control authority and are potentially faster than conventional control surfaces. In this study we investigate the unsteady performance and gust load reduction capabilities of fluidic actuation concepts using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations with the DLR TAU code. The fluidic concepts are implemented on a supercritical airfoil and their steady and unsteady lift change performance characterized and compared with that of a trailing edge flap. The results show that the fluidic actuators can deliver comparable gust load alleviation performance as the trailing edge flap for well-predicted gust encounters and outperform the flap for delayed gust detection. Promising actuator configurations are implemented on swept wing sections and on the half-model of a mid-range aircraft of the Cluster of Excellence SE²A, to investigate the sensitivity of actuator performance to sweep angle and wing integration. For a surface jet, for example, spanwise distributions of round air jets are compared with continuous and spanwise partitioned slots to identify the most suitable approach. Unsteady interactions with vertical gusts are simulated for the half-model based on the disturbance velocity approach and fluidic actuation is applied to counteract the gust-induced lift increase. The progress towards fluidic gust load alleviation on an elastic wing is presented, introducing results of URANS simulations coupled to a structural modal model of the wing box using the coupling environment IFLS.