Lufthansa's Green Fares, SAF in Portugal & more (The Allplane Newsletter #96)
Picture: TAP
Let’s get another recap after the whirlwind of activity that was the past edition of the Farnborough Air Show
Electric Aviation
VoltAero has selected a Safran electric engine for its Cassio 330 hybrid. LINK.
Advanced Air Mobility
It seems that Textron is correcting course when it comes to electric aviiaton and air mobility. After the acquisition of Pipistrel it now says its eVTOL project Nexus is again active. LINK.
Vertical Aerospace and Babcock to review medical and emergency services applications for the VX4 eVTOL. This is a segment that some startups, such as Switzerland’s Dufour have decided to focus on. LINK. Btw, the VX4 is getting close its first flight!
Lilium has closed deals with Helity Copter Airlines, ASL Group, and AAP Aviation to build eVTOL networks in southern Spain, Benelux, and Norway, respectively. LINK.
VW, or more accurately, it’s Chinese subsidiary, is working on an eVTOL. LINK
About car makers investing in the eVTOL space, check out this article I wrote a few years ago on CNN.
French eVTOL startup Ascendance Flight Technologies claims to have already 245 orders from around the world. LINK.
Skyports closed a $23M Series B round. LINK.
Hydrogen Aviation
American Airlines became the latest major aviation player to invest in ZeroAvia. It also signed a MoU for 100 powertrains. LINK.
Already before this announcement, we had commented how this has been a pretty productive month for ZeroAvia in terms of deals!
Airbus invested in the world’s largest clean hydrogen fund. If the European manufacturer is to succeed in developing the triad of hydrogen-powered airliners it presented some months ago, it will need robust hydrogen infrastructure in place. LINK.
Tallinn airport is getting involved in the “Hydrogen Valley”, an emerging hydrogen ecosystem in the Estonian capital. LINK.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Lufthansa and Shell signed a MoU that would see the German airline group commit to an uptake of 1.8M metric tons of SAF in the 2024-30 period. Allegedly this is the largest SAF deal to date. How large? Perhaps in the order of 6-8% of its fuel needs.
Alaska Airlines, an airline that has been particularly active in the sustainability space, procuring 185M gallons of SAF from Gevo, starting in 2026. LINK.
Portuguese airline TAP completed the first SAF fight in Portugal, in cooperation with energy firm GALP and the Portuguese airport operator ANA (not to be confused with the eponymous Japanese airline). The HEFA-produced fuel (a whooping 39% blend!) was supplied by Neste. LINK.
And also in Portugal, a new SAF project, in this case, synthetic fuel and coming from rather unexpected quarters: Portuguese paper manufacturer Navigator as well as Germany’s P2X-Europe. The project will use green hydrogen as well as CO2 from Navigator’s own paper-making facilities. It is still subject to qualifying for some governmental support schemes, though. LINK.
Solar fuels explained. LINK.
Other interesting stuff in Sustainable Flight
Boeing to open a research center in Nagoya, Japan, to work with Japanese partners in a number of innovative technologies. Sustainability is going to play a key role in this project, with research in areas such as SAF and hybrid-electric propulsion being some of the technologies in the menu. LINK.
Airlines of the Lufthansa Group, including Swiss and Brussels Airlines, are introducing a new branded “Green Fare” that will be fully offsetting emissions. This new fare will be launched at first on flights to particularly environmentally-conscious Scandinavia. LINK.
Several major airlines (Air Canada, Air France-KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group, LATAM, the Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic) and Airbus to work on direct carbon air removal and storage. The mechanism is likely to be the pre-purchase of verified and durable carbon removal credits. LINK.
Airbus UpNext eXtra performance WING project proceeds apace. French authorities have now granted the permits that will enable production. LINK.
Airbus UpNext is also using a glider to study the effect of hydrogen combustion in the formation of contrails. It is the so called “Project Blue Condor”. LINK.
Air New Zealand set for itself a science-based, that is validated by Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), 28.9% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030, from a 2019 baseline, equivalent to a 16.3% reduction in absolute emissions over the period. LINK.
What else in aviation?
Norse Atlantic, the new long haul airline of former Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos, has established feeding partnerships with 3 LCCs on both sides of the Atlantic: Spirit, Easyjet and Norwegian. LINK.
Airbus successfully tested firefighting kit on the A400M military aircraft. With growing concern for global warming-induced large forest fires going up, this seems like a timely development! LINK.
A look at the distressed asset fund that acquires aircraft from airlines in trouble. LINK.
Air Greenland showed some pictures of its new A330neo, looking stunning in its beautiful red livery! LINK.
An interesting overview of the airport mobility market (which includes car rentals and different types of airport transfers). LINK.
New Australian LCC Bonza has received its first B737. LINK.
Two new articles on The Points Guy:
The Air Yacht is a rather futuristic take on the airship concept, more of a hybrid with a catamaran, really. But check it out!
How Polish airline LOT is connecting America to several cities in Eastern Europe beyond its Warsaw hub. LINK.