As 2025 draws to a close, we are reflecting on the conversations that stood out most from a year of interviews with industry leaders. Happy holidays! 🎄
Over the past year, we spoke with leaders shaping aviation’s response to climate change, from airport operators to early stage technology companies. Taken together, these discussions point to something significant. The industry appears to be entering a genuine inflection point, one where economics are beginning to shift, technologies are moving beyond pilots and prototypes, and the distance between public commitments and what is happening behind the scenes is becoming harder to overlook.
This special episode synthesises key insights from these conversations, revealing how different corners of the aviation industry are tackling decarbonisation.
Why airports hold more power than you think
Matthew Gorman, Director of Carbon Strategy at Heathrow Airport, put the scale of the challenge into stark perspective: At Heathrow, aircraft operations account for 95% of the total carbon footprint, whilst only 0.1% falls under the airport’s direct control, he says.
That reality has shaped how Heathrow approaches decarbonisation. Rather than focusing solely on the emissions it owns, the airport has looked for ways to influence those it does not control. A small increase in landing charges across all airlines is used to create a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) incentive scheme, where a SAF target is set, and airlines bid for rebates linked to SAF uptake. Launched in 2022, the scheme has been oversubscribed every year since its launch.
A similar logic underpins the approach taken by Swedavia, which operates ten airports across Sweden. For Swedavia, sustainability has become a licence to operate, particularly in a market where public expectations and political scrutiny are high. As Lena Wennberg, Chief Sustainable Development Officer, and Therese Forsström, Head of Environmental Department, explain, the company has implemented a programme where they offer discounts and reimburse up to 50% of the premium cost when airlines refuel with SAF.
At Vancouver Airport (YVR), CEO Tamara Vrooman is advancing the airport’s net zero target by a decade, bringing it forward to 2030. “When you’re trying to save greenhouse gases, the sooner you do it, the fewer there are to save,” she said. Vancouver’s leverage lies in its control of shared infrastructure; when the airport switches to renewable energy, every carrier operating there benefits.
Safety culture versus climate innovation
Aaron Robinson, Vice President of SAF at International Airlines Group (IAG), pointed to a factor that goes beyond cost when explaining why more than half of airlines worldwide have yet to use any SAF. “Airlines have long been founded on safety cultures, and when it comes to operations, it’s a very good thing. When it comes to innovation and change, that can be a very bad thing.” That mindset, he argues, creates a collective action problem, where individual airlines are reluctant to move first, even when they recognise the long-term need.
Matthew Ridley, Director of Sustainability and Innovation at the oneworld Alliance, endorses the role of shared investment in addressing some of the structural challenges facing SAF. oneworld’s $150 million fund with Breakthrough Energy Ventures is focused on backing next generation SAF technologies. “If everybody invested together, we could hire basically the best in the world,” he said, describing the rationale for pooling resources to support innovation at an earlier stage.
SAF pathways
While airlines debate who should move first, some companies are working to solve SAF’s fundamental challenge: cost. Trevor Best, CEO and co-founder of Syzygy Plasmonics, is pursuing an approach that could reach jet fuel parity. Syzygy’s photocatalytic technology converts waste biogas from landfills and dairy farms into SAF. The company is building NovaSAF 1 in Uruguay, the world’s first electrified biogas-to-SAF plant which is expected to come online in 2027. The modular facility will capture methane from nearly 14,000 cows and produce more than 350,000 gallons of SAF per year.
Tim Boeltken, Founder and Managing Director of INERATEC is taking a similarly modular approach to e-fuels. Rather than waiting for gigaton-scale infrastructure, his company builds pre-manufactured modules that can be deployed wherever green hydrogen is being produced. This allows production to start immediately, scaling gradually as more modules come online.
New aircraft technology
Electra’s 9-passenger EL9 Ultra Short hybrid-electric aircraft has secured over 2,200 pre-orders from over 60 operators globally, and can take off and land in as short as 150 feet. Marc Allen, CEO of Electra, argues that electric aviation requires a fundamental shift in how the comparison with jet fuel is framed. “A lot of people have been thinking about electric competing with jet fuel, and it just can’t win head to head. Jet fuel is 40-50 times as energy efficient. The answer is: it’s only going to happen as electric presents new forms of air travel capability that jet fuel can’t match.”
A more radical rethinking is underway at REGENT, which is developing Seagliders that fly just above the surface of the water, creating an entirely new category of transportation between boats and aircraft. With roughly 40% of the world’s population living in coastal communities, REGENT CEO Billy Thalheimer argues that Seagliders could offer an innovative solution for short range coastal routes.
Airlines preparing for system change
Jolanda Stevens, Programme Manager for Zero Emission Aviation at KLM, emphasises that airlines cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. Decarbonising aviation will require the industry to embrace change at a scale and pace that is unprecedented. “This is a whole system change. A system change for infrastructure, for legislation, for ground handling, for safety.”
At KLM, that recognition has translated into close engagement with aircraft developers. The airline contributes operational expertise to companies such as Heart Aerospace, helping to shape designs that can function in real world airline operations and not just controlled test environments.
Luke Farajallah, CEO of Loganair, the UK’s largest regional airline, explains why regional carriers face a broader set of decarbonisation options. “If you’re flying from the UK to America, sustainable aviation fuel right now is the best option. But for regional flying, the options are far wider.”
Loganair has introduced a mandatory £1 carbon levy on every ticket, with funds directed towards local environmental projects in Scotland. According to Farajallah, passenger resistance to the levy has been almost non-existent.
Looking ahead
What connects these conversations is clarity. No one is selling silver bullets or waiting for single solutions to emerge. The industry recognises that decarbonisation requires parallel efforts across infrastructure, fuel pathways, aircraft technologies, and business models.
The shift from aspiration to implementation is real. Economics are moving in the right direction, if not fast enough yet. And perhaps most importantly, the people building sustainable aviation’s future are doing so with their eyes wide open to both the possibilities and the constraints. That combination of realism and ambition might be the industry’s greatest asset as it charts the course to net zero.
