A weekend getaway, the trip of a lifetime, a visit to family… For many people, getting on a plane is synonymous with freedom and, however, it can also have side effects. The first, and best known, is the fear of flying; The second, less popular, is the flygskam. The term, coined in Sweden, defines the shame of flying that some people feel due to the CO₂ emissions generated by their trips.
At the moment, there is no way to avoid fear when getting on a plane. What does seem to have a solution is to be able to reduce its emissions. This is what the airline sector pursues with the manufacture of more efficient and sustainable aircraft. Improvements, which are combined with new features in the interior design that prioritize passenger comfort. Manufacturers, airlines and energy companies work hand in hand with a common goal: to make airplanes net zero emissions by 2050.
Today, electrification is not a valid alternative for airplanes. Current batteries cannot generate or store enough energy to make long journeys, so airlines are opting for other solutions, such as the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which can help the European airline sector reduce its emissions by up to 34% in 2050. “Chemically these fuels are the same as the kerosene that is already used. The aircraft will be able to charge, with the same safety standards, an amount of energy equivalent to what they carry now, which will allow them to continue covering great distances,” explains Miguel Ángel García Carreño, Process Development Manager at Repsol Technology Lab.
For aviation, sustainability is no longer a trend. It is now a reality thanks to the development of biokerosenes (biojet), produced from biological waste, and synthetic kerosene (e-jet), made with captured CO₂ and renewable hydrogen. With an emissions reduction of between 65% and 100% compared to conventional kerosene, both are proposed as the most immediate alternatives to decarbonize the sector, as confirmed by the European Union (EU) in its proposal for a ReFuelAviation directive, where set a goal for 63% of aviation fuel to be sustainable by 2050.
The airline sector has been working on these solutions for years. In Spain, the first biojet-powered flight took place in 2011 thanks to a joint initiative between Iberia and Repsol, which just a few weeks ago signed an agreement to research and produce sustainable aviation fuels. Last year, the energy company was able to manufacture, from biomass, the first two batches of biojet for the national market, which will prevent the emission of more than a thousand tons of CO₂, the equivalent of 95 flights between Madrid and Barcelona. Part of this fuel was already used last March by the company Evelop to carry out its first eco-sustainable flight between Madrid and Punta Cana.
And there are more examples. In 2017, Chinese airline Hainan made the first transoceanic flight using biokerosene made from recycled cooking oil between Beijing and Chicago. European airlines such as Air France, Iberia or KLM have also been testing different types of sustainable fuels for years. Precisely, at the beginning of this year, the Dutch KLM carried out the first commercial flight powered by synthetic kerosene (e-jet). The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Madrid and used a mixture of 500 liters of sustainable synthetic kerosene as fuel.
In parallel, the sector is developing new technologies to improve the efficiency of aircraft. This is the case of Airbus, which, in collaboration with the engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, is working on the construction of the largest aviation engine in the world, the UltraFan, which, among other benefits, promises a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency. . This development is part of the Clean Sky research program, which the EU has launched to develop innovative technologies that reduce emissions produced by airplanes.
It is not the only way forward. Airbus has focused on hydrogen as a material to power its airplanes because “it is the most important transition that the aviation industry has ever seen,” the company explains and, according to the report Hydrogen Powered Aviation (“Aviation powered by hydrogen”), published by Clean Sky, the use of hydrogen could reduce the climate impact of flights by 50% to 75%.
These are firm steps, but the challenge that aviation faces is great, recalls García Carreño: “The natural environment of the airplane, which is long distances and intercontinental trips, requires that aircraft have a lot of energy safely and therefore “The fuel that is seen in the future continues to be kerosene: the challenge is to progressively increase the percentage produced from raw materials of biological origin,” he adds.
So is taking the flight experience to the next level. Improving the comfort of the seats, helping to better cope with the long hours of confinement or allowing travelers to hold meetings on board that they were previously forced to suspend due to the virtual pause that goes from take-off to landing, are some of the things that the industry has set its sights on changing in the long term.
An example is the project that Boeing, together with the University of Cincinnati and The Live Well Collaborative foundation, presented last March and which contemplates the creation of a coworking space. Its ‘Coffee House Cabin’ will host work tables, made up of around four passengers who will be able to purchase their seat in this area when purchasing the flight.
In the case of Airbus, its improvement plans for future aviation materialize in its Airbus Cabin Vision 2030 and the degree of customization it will allow for passengers. From seats that can be rotated to create space for families or small groups, to choosing your flight environment thanks to augmented reality and placing your orders directly through digital devices.
The date on which the way of traveling is expected to change is already marked on the calendar. And although there is still a way to go, these innovations are proof of the sector’s commitment to creating more sustainable airplanes, where no passenger can feel ashamed of flying.