Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus and Ireland-based global major aviation finance and aircraft leasing company Avolon have announced that they are partnering to support the development of hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft. The partnership will operate within the framework of Airbus’ ZEROe hydrogen-powered airliner project. (ZEROe is looking at both hydrogen combustion and hydrogen fuel cell technologies.) The announcement was made at the Farnborough International Airshow, currently under way in the UK.

“Joining the ZEROe project is another step in Avolon’s sustainability journey, and we look forward to building on our long-standing partnership with Airbus to consider how the next-generation aircraft will be financed and commercialised,” explained Avolon president and chief commercial officer Paul Geany. “It will take a wide ecosystem of contributors to meet the challenges of hydrogen-powered commercial flight, and Airbus is playing a crucial role in bringing partners together. While we continue to focus on supporting our customers in modernising their fleets with lower emissions aircraft, it is also vital we look beyond that at what can further drive our industry’s decarbonisation.”

Avolon has already invested into research into sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) production, as well as into Vertical Aerospace, a company that is developing an electric-powered vertical take-off and landing aircraft (a category popularly called flying taxis, but more formally known as urban air mobility vehicles). Further, Avolon has committed itself to having 75% of its fleet of aircraft (which currently numbers 1 029) made up of new-technology lower emissions aircraft, by the end of next year.

“There is real value in bringing together industry leaders to help solve the challenges facing aviation,” highlighted Airbus ZEROe project VP Glen Llewellyn. “We know we can’t solve decarbonisation alone and welcome Avolon’s expertise and worldwide leadership in the aircraft leasing business. Working together to consider how the transition can be commercialised and financed for airline customers is crucial to success.”

Earlier in the week, and also at Farnborough, Airbus announced that it was investing in leading US sustainable fuels company LanzaJet, to stimulate the development of the Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) pathway to the production of SAF. ATJ is an important technology for the large-scale production of SAF and LanzaJet has developed its own ethanol-to-SAF process technology (that uses low-carbon ethanol). Airbus’ investment will allow LanzaJet to further increase and scale up its production capability and capacity.

“[SAFs] are one of the most important levers available to decarbonise aviation, but their production is still limited,” pointed out Airbus chief sustainability officer Julie Kitcher. “Our partnership with LanzaJet demonstrates Airbus’ commitment to work with leading energy technology suppliers to explore innovative production pathways and scale SAF. This important partnership with LanzaJet underlines the importance of new technologies and cross-sector collaboration to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.”