Airbus is seeing early signs in the recovery of demand for long-haul aircraft and “may start the widebody [production] ramp-up earlier than we thought,” CEO Guillaume Faury tells Aviation Week.
Australian regional airline Skytrans has partnered with local startup Stralis Aircraft to convert a 19-seat Beech 1900D turboprop to hydrogen-electric propulsion for flight trials in 2025.
Europe’s airlines have given a mixed response to the European Council’s approval of reforms to the region’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), welcoming sustainable aviation fuel allowances but sounding the alarm over the early phaseout of free carbon allowances.
The dual registration of aircraft raises safety concerns relating to the international validity of each airplane’s certificate of airworthiness, ICAO said.
NASA has launched its hunt for a large-scale experimental aircraft to demonstrate the airframe configuration and technologies for a sustainable single-aisle-class airliner that could enter service by the mid-2030s.
Fuel refiner Neste and Victor, an on-demand private-jet charter company, have partnered to make Neste MY sustainable aviation fuel available for all Fly Victor bookings.
Researchers with the Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology have designed a three-member family of Flying-V aircraft to demonstrate that the next-generation concept scales.
The facility at the Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co. near Ningpo, Zhejiang Province, is designed to manufacture 100,000 metric tons of unblended biofuel annually, and the state-owned company says its refinery will pave the way toward large-scale production.
The pros and cons of the different fuel-cell types should be considered carefully for hydrogen-powered aircraft, as well as liquid-hydrogen production sites, says Bauhaus Luftfahrt, a Munich-based aviation science and technology think-tank.
Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines, which operates one of the oldest long-haul fleets in Europe, expects it will need a fleet rollover this decade.
No fast lane is in sight for the introduction of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) in significant quantities, as producers still have to cope with complex processes and high costs, French oil giant TotalEnergies says.
Yet many of those companies are small- and medium-size businesses and finding the time and money is a serious hurdle for them, industry observers warn.
Lufthansa’s decision to return part of its Airbus A380 fleet to service is a reflection of an unexpected boom in demand for long-haul flights and a solution to delivery delays affecting the carrier’s widebody fleet—but it comes with substantial additional complexity and economic risk.
In an effort to mitigate the effects of Western sanctions imposed in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has outlined a plan to reconfigure the country’s commercial aircraft fleet in favor of domestically produced airliners by 2030.
The European Parliament’s Transport Committee has approved legislation that includes a more ambitious sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate than one originally proposed by the European Commission’s “Fit for 55” climate package.
