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EBACE 2024 Focuses On Innovation, Sustainability And Safety
Visitors had to present government-issued IDs in addition to show credentials at EBACE 2024 following protests last year. There were two lines of fencing around aircraft.
Innovation, sustainability and safety were leading themes at the 2024 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition held May 28-30 at the Palexpo convention center in Geneva.
“Innovation does not come so much from when we have new ideas; innovation comes when we get rid of old beliefs,” Bertrand Piccard, a record-breaking third-generation aviator, said during a keynote speech on opening day.
Piccard flew nonstop around the world in a balloon in 1999 and made intercontinental flights in the solar-powered Solar Impulse aircraft in 2015-16. He believes defying expectations is key to business aviation’s transition to net-zero carbon emissions, which the industry has committed to achieving by 2050.
“We need to restore hope,” Piccard said. “We need to restore enthusiasm, and we need to show what we can achieve, even if some people believe it’s impossible. This is what aviation has to show.”
- Companies need to balance competitiveness, fairness with climate concerns
- Innovation is key to achieving sustainability
This year’s European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) comes at a time of significant change and challenge in business aviation.
For one, the industry is facing increased criticism and pressure from European policymakers and activities to “further an ambitious climate policy without consideration of competitiveness or fair treatment of market participants,” European Business Aviation Association Secretary General Holger Krahmer said in a keynote presentation. “Today I stand before you to robustly defend business aviation and what is urgent and necessary more than ever before. Our sector is increasingly under scrutiny, and it’s vital to highlight the essential role that we play in Europe’s socioeconomic landscape.”
Industry leaders at EBACE noted that business aviation has led the way on developing and deploying more efficient engines, lighter materials, enhanced aerodynamics and advanced avionics, as well as promoting sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
In a luncheon panel discussion, business jet manufacturers’ top executives maintained that the goal to net-zero emissions by 2050 is entirely achievable through collaborative means.
“It’s not something that anybody on the stage or anybody in this room is going to be able to do on their own,” Boeing Business Jets President Joe Benson said. “There’s no silver-bullet technology or policy. It’s going to take the whole of the industry, academia, governments, everybody working together and collaboratively.”
Each panelist stressed the role of SAF in net-zero emissions, as electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen propulsion face larger hurdles for technological advancement, testing and certification.
That future was on display throughout the conference. French startup VoltAero showcased its full-scale Cassio 330 hybrid-electric aircraft, saying it is on track to launch by year-end into a company testing program, but not in a hybrid configuration. First flights are expected in early 2025.
Meanwhile, Lilium displayed a full-scale mockup of its premium-edition electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. Company officials expressed confidence they could secure $100 million in loan guarantees from the German federal and Bavarian state governments. That financing would carry the startup most of the way to type certification, they said.
After successful flight testing of a demonstrator, Beyond Aero’s engineers say they are delving into designing the One, an electric business jet relying on a hydrogen fuel cell, CEO and co-founder Eloa Guillotin said May 28 in Geneva. The Toulouse-based startup exhibited at EBACE the modified ultralight aircraft that flew in February with a small-scale powertrain.
Manufacturers also provided updates on future traditional aircraft in development.
Dassault is navigating a “very turbulent world” as it faces high anticipation for its Falcon 10X, President and CEO Eric Trappier noted. “We have conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East, [as well as] higher interest rates—which, since inflation is going down, should go down as well.”
Despite rising geopolitical tensions and economic strains, Trappier was confident in Dassault’s market performance. Its newest long-range jet, the Falcon 6X, entered service last year and has demonstrated exemplary performance, according to the airframer.
Final assembly of the Falcon 10X, owing to supply chain challenges, was originally expected to begin in the latter half of this year but is now projected for 2025. As a result, the first 10X deliveries have been delayed until 2027. The Falcon 10X is powered by Rolls-Royce Pearl 10X engines, which are being tested on a Boeing 747 testbed platform. According to Trappier, the engine has run in a test cell using 100% SAF.
Textron Aviation, meanwhile, is moving forward with certification testing of its Citation Ascend midsize business jet and has completed more than 125 flights and 350 flight hours on the prototype aircraft. The jet, the latest of its 560XL family of aircraft, is expected to enter service in 2025.
Leonardo unveiled a full-scale cabin mockup of its AW09 Agusta single-engine helicopter, outfitted with a new VIP-corporate transport layout. The reveal introduces the company’s Agusta-branded VIP line of helicopters. The AW09 was originally developed by Kopter and is awaiting certification following the group’s acquisition by Leonardo Helicopters in 2020.
ForeFlight, the Boeing-owned provider of electronic flight bags and other integrated aviation software, announced a partnership with clean energy group Breakthrough Energy that both parties believe may soon enable business aviation customers to reroute flights dynamically to avoid areas in which contrails are formed.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates contrails may account for more than a third of aviation’s impact on global warming. The system the companies are developing relies on existing technology and could be deployed rapidly and relatively straightforwardly, though implementation will not happen overnight.
“I think the approach here is that of humility—humility toward the complexity of a very big, complicated issue,” said Matteo Mirolo, head of contrail policy and strategy at Breakthrough Energy.
Protests were more subdued at this year’s convention, unlike in 2023, when more than 100 climate activists rushed the gates and jumped fences at the static display at Geneva Airport. Security was visibly tighter this time, with a small number of peaceful protesters gathered outside the convention center carrying signs that read, “the skies belong to the birds,” “the aircraft of the future is a train” and “send private jets to the scrapyard.”
EBACE 2024 had fewer exhibitors with 262 registered, down from nearly 400 in 2019 and over 300 in 2023. Notably missing were Gulfstream and Bombardier, who say they are focusing on smaller events and showings tailored to customers.
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