More than 200 companies and organizations from the European aviation sector presented in Brussels on Monday a roadmap for the deployment of around 20,000 electric, hydrogen-based and hybrid aircraft in Europe by 2050, with the first commercial flights expected in less than five years.
The document, prepared by the Alliance for Zero-Emission Aviation (AZEA), a sectoral platform promoted by the European Commission, mentions that more than half of the planes that will enter the European market in the next two decades will have clean propulsion, a change that will start with small planes, writes Agerpres.
But aircraft with more than 90 seats, which operate intra-European routes and have the most significant impact on pollution, will not have alternatives to fossil fuel operation until after 2040.
The first commercial flights of clean-powered aircraft will be in less than five years, but certification of new types of aircraft takes between 8 and 10 years, the same document said.
Among AZEA members we find manufacturers such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Safran, airlines such as EasyJet, Air France-KLM and TUI, airports such as those in Paris, Dublin and Stockholm, energy suppliers such as Engie and Air Liquide, regulatory bodies including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Eurocontrol.
“We will no longer be hostages to certain global crises”
The European Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, made a connection between this plan and the EU's “energy sovereignty”. “If we rely on electricity or hydrogen, we will no longer be dependent on rogue states like Russia or Iran, we will no longer be hostage to certain global crises,” he said in a speech at the launch of that roadmap, warning that following the conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the EU only has around six weeks worth of kerosene (aviation fuel), according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The same European Commissioner, whose portfolio brings together for the first time within the European Commission civil aviation and the defense industry, also mentioned the military implications of the expected transformation. “Electric aircraft will revolutionize military logistics, with hydrogen and electricity produced close to the front line, providing total tactical independence,” the EU official believes.
The Lithuanian European Commissioner also said in this regard that “the drones used in Ukraine already work with batteries”, and “the electrical systems are, by their nature, silent, more difficult to detect and have less infrared emissions”.
The plan presented on Monday estimates that, by 2050, “green” aviation will require around 1.5 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen and electricity annually, equivalent to 4% of current EU production, and calls for funding specifically dedicated to this purpose in the next multi-annual EU budget for 2028-2034, which is still under negotiation.
