‘Sustainability’ is a word the aviation industry knows all too well. In commercial aviation, airlines are committing to sustainable aviation fuel programmes in order to meet government or agency imposed mandates. For airside operations, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are increasingly beginning to cater to the need to electrify ground support equipment. And, even the air cargo industry is becoming increasingly conscious of its environmental impact.
But what of business aviation? Aviation, as a global industry, is often heavily criticised for much of the carbon it emits through the sheer amount of fuel it takes to operate on such a wide scale.
Indeed, in the UK for example, it is business jets and private aircraft that bear the brunt of the criticism for the environmental impact they have based on the much smaller proportion of people who use them, compared to, say, commercial aircraft. Environmental campaigners even go as far as to call on them to be banned under legislation.
Business aviation, however, is exploring efforts to decarbonise along with the other sectors that make up the global aviation industry. Pipistrel, for example, a Textron eAviation company, believes battery and hydrogen-powered flight is the future for private air travel. But according to the electric aircraft manufacturer’s director of engineering and programmes, Tine Tomažič, the industry has a long way to go.
Because, although companies like Pipistrel are making strides in sustainable flight, there are still significant barriers to business aviation’s electric take-off. Chiefly, the lack of infrastructure to accommodate battery-powered aircraft is proving to be a difficult challenge to overcome – not a dissimilar hurdle for the rest of the aviation industry where conversations around electric ground support equipment or sustainable aviation fuel arise.
Tomažič likens this challenge to that of electric cars when they were in their infancy: “You can draw comparisons from the car industry, which has been going through electrification for quite a while. The first the argument was ‘why would I buy an electric car if there are no electric charging stations anywhere?’.
“Then people realised they can accommodate charging for electric vehicles at home. These are small chargers, chargers just for them, but the good thing about them is can you leave your house in the morning every time with a full battery.
“Only thereafter, when more and more electric vehicles were out on the road, with users having charged them at home, did companies start to set up charging stations along the lines of petrol stations – a concept we all know. Now, we have both,” he continues, adding: “With electric cars you can recharge at home as well as at infrastructure locations [like a petrol station] which are not owned by the vehicle owner but some service provider.
“This is what aviation isn’t seeing yet, but when it will, it will be super because then you can start making choices between economics, practicality and independence of operations.”
It’s a classic ‘chicken and egg’ scenario, according to Tomažič: “Why put the charger in if there’s no widespread electric aircraft activity?”
The engineer says one of the prevailing barriers to updating the infrastructure to accommodate electric aircraft is historic attitudes. For the “longest time”, it has never been up to the operators to think about infrastructure needs because they didn’t have to – but this is changing.
He explains that, for decades: “Airports were there, fuel was there, FBOs were there, and everything was kind of down to natural immersion – and it comes to practicality”.
“[But] then, here comes electrification and hydrogen where they will be no different. Because there is zero pre-existing infrastructure, near nothing.
“And all of a sudden, it does become the operator’s problem, and they’ll be thinking ‘how do I put electricity in the plane?’”
As a result, the chief engineer says, Pipistrel is attempting to circumvent this challenge. Now, the manufacturer’s Velis Electro is delivered to customers with the charger, because it isn’t available elsewhere, owing to a lack of infrastructure. He makes clear though, that this solution is not, and should not be, a long-term one.
“Is this something we wanted to do initially? Obviously not, because we see ourselves as an aircraft company. Is it something that we have to do? Absolutely, otherwise you do not cater for the enablement of flight for our aircraft.
“Is it something that we wish to be doing in the future forever? Absolutely not. We are looking forward to when airport authorities, FBOs, people who today provide ground handling services and or refuelling, they also start equipping themselves for these new technologies.”
However, Tomažič concedes that small pockets of the business aviation industry are beginning to realise this problem, and get a grip of it. He says the UK has begun to see companies equipping airports with charging infrastructure – a move not connected to the size of the electric aircraft fleet or even the presence of battery-powered planes, but because they want to attract them.
The engineer also highlights France and Sweden as leaders in the shifting attitude that there is a need to cater for this new way of flying if the industry is to decarbonise.
“The trend is clear,” he optimistically explains. “It may actually be sooner than we contemplated that there will be these ground support and infrastructure offerings at airports, almost regardless of whether electric aircraft routinely fly from these airports.”
It’s a matter of “critical mass”, according to Tomažič. Once the industry sees more and more electric aircraft off the ground and in the sky, opportunities for providing the right infrastructure will be identified not by aircraft owners, but by those who want to serve them.
But, he does allude, again, to the need for a shift in attitude amongst industry key players. Tomažič explains that the majority of the industry innovators working towards a sustainable flightpath today were not around before decarbonising air travel was a priority. “It’s not so much connected to the cost of equipment that achieves recharging in place,” he adds.
What of the timescale for this change, though? And how far down the runway can the industry expect to see a scalable change with regard to adapting for the future of flight?
According to Tomažič: “I think most airports will have the ability to charge an electric aircraft within five years. My rationale is simply based on the fact that this charging infrastructure is going to be compatible not only with aircraft, but also ground vehicles.
“Electric aircraft use the same electricity as electric vehicles. There’s disparity when it comes to electric flights, but you can see how the same charging solution empowers not only electric flight, but essentially the electrification of the mobility means of vehicles that are present at airports.”
He continues: “I can understand that for some airports, charging of electric aircraft will not be the priority in decision-making. It may be other things, but at the same time, they’d be putting in chargers for vehicles, so they’ll have also automatically enabled aircraft charging – even if the aircraft doesn’t use the same plug.”
However, can the business aviation sector enable this shift autonomously? In other areas of aviation, from commercial and cargo to airports’ ground operations, stakeholders are working with governments and industry agencies to not only financially support decarbonisation projects, but speed them up.
Commercial aviation’s sustainable aviation fuel drive is a key example of this. Looking at Europe, for instance, the European Union has set gradual mandates for certain percentages of fuel at EU airports to be SAF all the way up to 2050. And in order to support airlines in both decarbonising their own operations and contributing towards achieving the mandates, the EU offers initiatives such as the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Granted, this example focuses more on cutting down the environmental impact of flights themselves rather than addressing infrastructure needs, but is there a case to be made that similar support could be made available to ensure these needs are met? Tomažič believes this is a “concrete” step.
“If you try and look at the whole situation of how to mobilise the electrification of flight, for business aviation or other areas of aviation, it’s essential to invigorate the infrastructure chapter – not to sponsor the development of vehicles but sponsor or subsidise a framework that makes these aircraft welcome.
“[Further], it creates a competitive field between OEMs, and also removes this psychological barrier of entry of ‘where can I charge my electric plane’ or for that matter electric ground support equipment for larger airports and business aviation operators.
“So, yes, it would be a very concrete step if governments could boost the proliferation and adoption of electric flight with their own strings.”