Sustainability insights from Farnborough

Issue #23 of Sustainability in the Air Newsletter

Shashank Nigam

and

Dirk Singer

Jul 22, 2022

At Farnborough, we asked top aviation executives about the most significant hurdles the industry faces in building a sustainable future.

Some of the answers were very candid and surprising. In the airshow-special episode of the Sustainability In The Air podcast, Shashank Nigam interviews industry stalwarts.

Here's whom he spoke with in this episode:

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways
Arturo Barreira, Airbus Latin America
Jane Ashton, easyJet
Jonathan Wood, Neste
Laia Barbarà, WEF
Lauren Riley, United
Nicolas Chretien, Airbus
Patrick Baudis, MHI RJ
Sheila Remes, Boeing

Have a listen! The second episode from the airshow comes out next week - do subscribe so you don't miss out!

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eEGwrTPF
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eqTbvwFf
Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/efqw4mwX

The image above comes from the ZeroAvia website.

It was also shown in a presentation given by CEO and Founder Val Miftakhov, who at Farnborough talked about the need to reach so-called ‘True Zero’, where air travel has next to no environmental impact at all.

ZeroAvia went for an H2 Electric solution as Miftakhov says that this will remove 95% of climate-based effects from aviation.

By contrast, he believes that any combustion-based solution, including hydrogen combustion engines, will only achieve 50% mitigation.

In fact, in a separate announcement, Airbus said that it would be testing hydrogen engines on a glider in North Dakota this Winter to measure contrails and NOx emissions.

Collaboration news

EasyJet agrees deals to pioneer ‘green’ aviation technology (BTN)

Sustainability news

Digital Sustainability: 3 Airlines Join Forces With Boeing To Catalyze Increased Operational Efficiency (Simple Flying)
‘They need to get real’: Airlines slammed for betting on alternative fuels to reduce emissions (CNBC)
Aer Lingus signs deal for sustainable aviation fuel supply (Dublin Gazette)
Why Air NZ's sleep pods are hot in a bad way (Stuff)
Is your airline or hotel greenwashing? Here’s how to tell | Travel Troubleshooter (Seattle Times)
ZeroAvia attracts $30mn in new funding (Energy)

A guest post by

Shashank Nigam

Always on the cutting edge, I believe trust in travel needs to be rebuilt by planning and investing for a world where more people can travel with far less impact on the planet.

A guest post by

Dirk Singer

Aviation is a cultural, economic and social good. It's also a growing contributor to global warming. I want to do something about that. Head of Sustainability at SimpliFlying. Contribute research papers and articles at Sustainability in the Air.