Dubai Air Show recap & more
✈️ A Busy Month: Dubai Air Show & Future Aero Festival
It's been quite an intense November and start of December with the Dubai Air Show and the Future Aero Festival in Amsterdam.
So many interesting things at these two events that each would require a long post on its own. Nevertheless, I tried to collect some of the stories that caught my attention…
🚁 eVTOL Developments at Dubai Air Show
One of the highlights of the Dubai Air Show was seeing Joby's eVTOL fly.
The first impression is that it is so incredibly quiet that you barely hear it (see the video below)!
Besides its already well known urban mobility project in Dubai, which has just got its first four vertiports confirmed, Joby has also set its sights on Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom's aviation authority has now said that it will accept whatever the FAA decides regarding Joby's eVTOL certification.
The Dubai Air Show offered also the possibility of seeing some advanced air mobility concepts that are usually not that well talked about (in some cases, as a result of a deliberate decision to stay off the radar).
These are the cases of Honda, which confirmed it is also in the eVTOL race, and two Emirati firms, K2, and drone developer LODD (picture below). The latter had a rather large booth showcasing its new cargo drone, which had had its maiden flight just a few weeks earlier.
Contrary to what had been announced (and the most cynical ones would say, perhaps not entirely unexpectedly) Archer did not fly at the Dubai Air Show.
However, it did sign agreements with two prominent Saudi companies, The Helicopter Company and Red Sea Global. Before you get too excited, think that these agreements do not come with a specific order commitment, but just establish some rather vague framework for collaboration in the potential roll out of the midnight eVTOL in Saudi. Will see...
Other Advanced Air Mobility Updates
BETA Technologies has announced new orders (up to 20 from a company called e-Smart, which is the recently created amalgamation of three logistics operators, for cargo operations in Europe and the UAE).
The Vermont startup has also secured an agreement for its proprietary pusher electric engine to power Embraer's EVE eVTOL.
The show also provided an opportunity to see a full-scale cabin mockup of the Regent Seaglider, which combined with a really cool audiovisual setup provided a good feel of what the wing-in-ground experience may be like in the future.
The Rhode Island startup also signed an agreement with DHL.
Also on the water, electric seaplane developer Jekta has shown publicly, for the first time, the 1:9 scale model that it is using to test its concept.
Cranfield Aerospace Solutions unveiled a hydrogen-electric drone. While presented as "multi-role" it appears the first and primary mission of this new drone would be oceanographic research. This is quite a pivot from the regional hydrogen-powered airliner CAS had been working on previously!
AutoFlight, one of the leading Chinese eVTOL developers, is looking to the sea with the launch of a marine vertiport.
This opens up interesting perspectives in offshore services, for example. Not entirely unexpected considering that the company had recently demonstrated its capacity to land on an offshore platform.
Electra.aero has launched its own defense unit, much in line with the Zeitgeist of our time.
🤔 eVTOL Industry Criticism
Michael Barnard, an old friend of the podcast and well known for his outspokenness, is back at it! He just published a rather critical article blasting the eVTOL industry.
In this regard, here is an article questioning whether China's vibrant eVTOL scene is in fact a bubble about to burst.
Not entirely unrelated, here are some thoughts about new aircraft technology from an investor's perspective.
🎤 Airline Executive Interviews
The Dubai Air Show provided the perfect setting to have in-depth interviews with two major UAE airlines. In particular, with Etihad's COO and flydubai's CEO.
🌍 Aviation Developments in the Gulf
This is already post-Dubai airshow, but still quite relevant, since the six countries that make the Gulf Cooperation Council have decided to create a unified civil aviation authority in the style of what EASA does in Europe.
Talking about Dubai, Fast Company has published a feature about Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths, with a strong focus on the innovation and sustainability aspects of its operations.
🌱 Future Aero Festival in Amsterdam
As per the Future Aero Festival, organized by Sustainable Aero Lab, it gathered a very good cross-section of the innovation and sustainable aviation space, including startups, but also representatives of the investment community and some major names such as RTX, Safran and Embraer-X. And we got a (Dutch) Royal visit too!
Will be sharing some of the insights from this event in the next newsletter!
🌿 Sustainability & Climate Action
Airlines at COP30
In the meantime, Brazil hosted COP30. Judging by the amount of media coverage it appears that these large international summits have lost much of its former shine. Nevertheless, a number of aviation industry bodies reiterated their position on tackling carbon emissions.
For example, IATA's Director General, Willie Walsh reaffirmed his organization's belief in ICAO's role as the single global authority to fully implement CORSIA and operationalize Article 6 in order to unlock climate finance for developing nations.
"Fragmented taxes and levies will not cut emissions. They risk diverting funds from actual emission reduction investments, which is a critical climate consideration, and will only weaken connectivity and harm those who depend on it most," he stated.
⛽ Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Developments
SAF seems to be the most straightforward bet to decarbonize asap and producers are building up capacity. This time is Aether Fuels investing in Singapore.
In the UK, Willis Sustainable Fuels and the Green Finance Institute have announced a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) Project Accelerator, which is a nice way to say they are evaluating the financial feasibility of building a new SAF plant in Teeside, but haven't reached a decision yet.
SAF offtake recognition and accounting continues to be a major stepping stone for any initiative in this field.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) has launched, with the collaboration of SAF maker World Energy, the Market Acceleration Indicator (MAI) Methodology and Module, which is a new framework designed to provide credible recognition of long-term EAC offtake agreements.
If interested in how SAF is accounted for and the opportunities systems like book-and-claim offer, here is a nice explanation of Future Energy Global business model, another interesting and growing project in this field.
Aviation Taxes & Greenwashing
Germany is the latest European country to backtrack on aviation taxes, lowering them.
21 European airlines have agreed with the EU a certain number of guidelines about how they talk about sustainability-related matters. The aim is to be as objective and transparent as possible and avoid potential attempts at "greenwashing".
💧 Hydrogen Aviation News
ZeroAvia has got a couple of positive news: it has completed a liquid hydrogen refill and it has obtained a €21M EU grant to advance clean energy in Norway.
BUT the company has gone through an additional round of layoffs, with some commentators questioning its current financial standing.
✨ Cool Aviation Things
This piece of news hasn't got the attention it deserves, I think, since it is pretty cool. ATR has got a launch customer, Air Cambodia, for its versatile cabin concept, which allows airlines to easily switch between economy and business class configuration.
Also, pretty cool how SWISS is marking the arrival of its first A350 (the beautiful "Lausanne" Wanderlust-liveried aircraft) with the launch of a special edition Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 46 SWISS Limited Edition watch. Only 350 of it will be made.
My former professor Tim Leunig has some thoughts on making flying even safer (if you're not already following Tim on LinkedIn or X, you should—lots of no-nonsense insights on economics and policy)
Thanks to @a320cat I've learned of this website that lets you track flights on a 3D scale, that is displaying also the changes in altitude. Pretty cool!
✈️ Other Aviation News
Gulfstream's G300 has completed its first flight.
TAP Air Portugal is introducing a new premium economy class (although it is not yet decided whether it is going to call it this way).
If interested about airline products and passenger experience, you may like these two reviews of Turkish Airlines business class on the A350 and B777-ER, respectively.
An interview with the COO of Air Transat, a Canadian airline that has made a rather successful business model pivot in the last three years.
And two Nordic airlines that have also made announcements this month: Norse Atlantic Airways is getting a new CEO and Finnair unveiled its strategy until 2029.
Sadly, had to update the list of airlines that stopped operating in 2025 with a few more entries, such as Latvian ACMI operator Smartlynx and two UK regional airlines Eastern Airways and Blue Islands.
