Airbus Corporate Jets president Chadi Saade yesterday told the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) that net-zero aviation won't be possible unless industry sectors collaborate.
Saade was speaking at an EBACE lunch gathering that also featured executives from Boeing, Dassault, Embraer and Textron.
The forum discussed the issue of low-emissions business aviation, and the investment and innovation needed to achieve net-zero goals.
“There’s not a single company that can take this challenge by itself,” said Saade. “So, it’s a question of collaboration; it’s a question of an ecosystem that we’re trying to build.
"As a catalyst for this ecosystem, working with partners from all around the industry, including airports, partners, energy producers, engine manufacturers and so on.
"We need this collaboration for the industry to work all together to reach this target.”
The gathered executives endorsed Saade's position, emphasising also the need for a greater uplift of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supported by government incentives.
Embraer Executive Jets president and CEO Michael Amalfitano said his company expected manufacturers to develop new low-emissions aircraft, with hybrid electric as the propulsion system most likely to emerge.
“Then we’ll take the power density up for longer-haul distances that will bring us to the ultimate solution, which will be hydrogen,” Amalfitano said. “That will get us to the 2050 goal of net zero.
"It’s the combination of SAF and the technological advancements that are happening at the OEM level–and putting that together as a fuel solution–that will allow us to travel distances that we currently travel with our current liquid fuels.”
According to Textron Aviation CEO Ron Draper, manufacturers have been improving emissions by driving efficiency into new aircraft designs, which has already had a major impact.
“If you look at this industry, just in the last few decades, it has reduced emissions 40%, just by trying to drive a little more fuel efficiency in aerodynamics and jet engine propulsion,” Draper told the forum.
“Even today, if we’re coming out with a new airplane, we’re looking at a leap forward in the efficiency of those airplanes.
“Without the amount of investment that’s going in the industry today, the amount of investment from small electric aircraft and advanced air mobility all the way up to larger aircraft–looking at hydrogen power–the amount of investment is enormous and accelerating.
"The amount of technology that’s going to mature and come to market in the next five-to-20 years is going to accelerate this change.”
Dassault Aviation executive VP civil aircraft Carlos Brana summed up the prevailing attitude within the business aviation community when it came to approaching the challenges of net zero.
“What is really interesting for me is that we have created the problem and we have found solutions,” he said. “That’s where the things are, for me. It makes me very optimistic.”
EBACE is on at Geneva Airport in Switzerland from 28-30 May.