ECO Airline starter opp i UK neste år - AW&ST

 

Har du fulgt med er det mye som skal skje i 2024. OL i Paris forventer at AAM tas i bruk, at sertifiseringsforskrifter og etablering av nye luftromsystemer vil muliggjøre en oppsving i disse flere hundre prosjektene som sliter på kapitalen sin før flyene er i luften. Vel, vi får se, men jeg er ikke særlig optimistisk og tror det tar enda et par år. (Red.)

Green Energy Entrepreneur To Launch New UK Eco-Airline

Victoria Moores July 17, 2023

Credit: Ecojet

Dale Vince, the founder of renewable energy firm Ecotricity, is planning to launch Edinburgh-based Ecojet in early 2024. 

The new airline will initially use kerosene-powered De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters, which will be converted to hydrogen-electric powertrains a year after launch.

“The plan is to operate an electric airline,” Vince told Aviation Daily. “We expect [UK] CAA certification, our license to operate, by the end of the year.”

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Ecojet plans to secure a UK air operator’s certificate (AOC) using conventionally powered 19-seat Twin Otters. The startup will then launch with three or four aircraft operating UK domestic flights in early 2024, estimating that the repurposing of existing aircraft will save 90,000 tons of carbon per year. The startup’s onboard product will also have a sustainability focus, with plant-based meals, no single-use plastic use, and eco-friendly uniforms.

“We will initially burn kerosene while the [hydrogen-electric powertrain] engines that we’re going to use complete their certification program, which we expect in early 2025,” Vince said. “When that happens, we will then swap out the engines on our existing planes and migrate to being a fully electric airline, powered by renewable energy.”

Around 18 months later, Ecojet intends to add 70-seat De Havilland Canada Dash 8s. “We’ll go from a 300-mi. range initially, with our 19 seaters, to a 500-mi. range with our 70 seaters. And at that point we hope to reach Europe.”

Vince declined to identify the powertrain supplier, but the timings and aircraft types indicate that the technology provider may be ZeroAvia, which is aiming to develop a 9- to 19-seater hydrogen-electric propulsion system with a 300 nm range by 2025, followed by a 40– to 80-seater with a 1,000 nm range by 2027. ZeroAvia is working on both the Twin Otter and Q400 platforms. 

Ultimately, Ecojet is planning to launch long-haul flights, however Vince said promotional images showing a Boeing 737 was just “a mock-up for fun.”

“We’re going to start out with propeller-based aircraft, and we did have quite a discussion about whether Ecojet was the right name for us, but our ambition is to be operating big aircraft as and when that becomes available,” Vince said.

Returning to the airline’s more immediate ambitions, Ecojet began its AOC process a few months ago and the airline has chosen Edinburgh to Southampton as its inaugural route. This will be joined by other large UK cities during its initial expansion phase. 

Network development will also depend on which airports have the infrastructure to handle hydrogen. “It’s not a difficult issue to solve,” Vince said. “It’s just something that we will need some lead times around, for building electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, and that kind of stuff. We’ve got time to do that while we wait for the [powertrain] technology to be certified.” If necessary, Vince’s green energy company Ecotricity will build this infrastructure.

Vince is skeptical about the potential for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), because of feedstock availability, but he is very interested in aviation e-fuels—particularly those based on direct air capture (DAC), where airborne carbon is gathered and reused. This is the same technology that Airbus and seven major airline groups backed during the 2022 Farnborough Air Show—and an area that Ecotricity plans to explore further.