The Path To Sustainable Aviation
The commercial aviation industry has been under quite a bit of scrutiny from environmentalists about aircraft emissions. From activists pledging not to fly, to KLM telling people to fly less, to more and more countries putting eco-taxes on aviation. And as much as it pains me to say this: they aren’t necessarily wrong. Climate change is a threat to the planet, and aviation does need to change. While only being responsible for 2% of global emissions, aviation does need to drastically cut emissions or else risk being under even more scrutiny and harming the planet even more. To fix this problem, there are some right solutions, and there are some wrong solutions. Simply “not flying” is not one of those right solutions. In this article, I’ll take you through some of the best ways that aviation can become more eco-friendly and sustainable, from things that you (yes you, the reader!) can do today, to some other, more lasting, solutions.
Why We Can’t Simply “Give Up” Flying
Some environmental activists have suggested the best way to reduce aviation emissions is to simply stop flying (notably in Sweden). Swedish airports also reportedly have noticed a small, but noticeable, decline in overall passenger traffic. However, the solution can’t just be for the whole world to give up flying. There are plenty of reasons why flying is instrumental to modern society, meaning that we can’t as a society just stop flying.
I’m sure it’s pretty obvious to most of you why commercial aviation can’t just go away. It provides the ability for people and goods to travel between places at speeds that never have been available before. The first reason why this is an impractical solution is that it simply will never happen. Air travel is expected to nearly double in size by 2036, mostly in China and the US. The fact is that even if activists manage to get a larger portion of the population to avoid flying (and take the train or drive more), it simply won’t beat the ever-growing amount of people that fly. I’m all for high speed trains on short distances such as from Washington to Boston via New York or from Los Angeles to San Francisco. That’s because they’ve been shown to work in places such as China, Japan, or Europe. But on coast to coast routes such as from New York to Los Angeles, the truth is that not many people will want to take a 12+ hour train instead of a 5 hour flight.
And even if they are successful, in some sort of way, there is no way that as a whole planet, in the foreseeable future, the amount of flying will decrease. The fact is that businessmen/women and regular people will never want to take a two day train across the US from New York to Los Angeles (or a similar distance) instead of flying, and even if we had them at Chinese bullet train speeds, it would still take twice the amount of time as a plane would take. In this society, time is (arguably) more valuable than money, and you can’t really wait two days traveling via train to see relatives or for an important meeting.
Also, forget about transatlantic or transpacific travel on a train. For the foreseeable future, without it taking a week on a ship (which is a polluter itself), aircraft is the only way to go for intercontinental routes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for high-speed rail in places like from Boston-New York-Philidelphia-Washington, or from San Diego-Los Angeles-San Francisco, or on the triangular route in Texas, because on those distances, high-speed rail works (just look at Europe, China, or Japan). But on longer, transcontinental distances, the public (in most of the world) never will be convinced to travel 2-3 times as long on a train instead of flying.
And for the others who say that flying should be given up completely, no matter the cost, what about the billions of dollars lost in worldwide economies and the jobs it creates? Air travel supports about 65.5 million jobs worldwide and creates 2.7 trillion dollars in economic activity, many of which are jobs that cannot be replaced by automation in the near future. And yes, you can make the argument that you don’t have to make that vacation to Aruba in the Caribbean, and that’s true, you don’t. But the people who live there do. In many places around the world, especially the secluded islands, the economy heavily relies on tourism. And how do the people get there (for the most part): on airplanes.
Of the five destinations with the highest percent GDP that comes from tourism (the Maldives, British Virgin Islands, Macau, Aruba, and Seychelles), 4 out of the 5 of them are islands and are inaccessible without planes. According to that statistic, there are 12 countries (or territories) that have 15% of their GDP directly come from tourism. So no, you don’t have to take that vacation to the Maldives, but chances are it’s great for your mental health (and many such places expose you to new cultures that allow you to see the world through a different lens), and you’ll be supporting places that rely solely on you for a large portion of their GDP.
So we are in a bit of a dilemma. There is no way that as a society we can give up flying; it allows us to get to other parts of the world in tiny amounts of time, which can allow business transactions and an economic efficiency never available before. There’s also no way that aviation will ever actually shrink as a whole in the foreseeable future because the estimated growth (which goes along with urbanization and the growing population) is too large. And the aviation industry hasn’t ignored it. KLM recently published an ad telling people to fly less, and air travel numbers have slightly decreased across some nations in Europe. The problem isn’t that airlines aren’t aware, the problem is that we don’t have a lot of the technology in place to go fully green. But we need a better, cleaner way to fly. Throughout the rest of the article, I’ll go through some of the best ways that we can create a more sustainable aviation industry.
Electric/Hybrid Aircraft
Simply making aircraft electric is probably the most obvious option. If you can charge and run a plane off of electricity only (as long as the electricity is coming from renewables), aircraft could be almost completely sustainable and green. But it’s not as simple as that. We do have electric planes now, but making a transcontinental or intercontinental electric plane is a challenge. The problem with large scale electric aircraft is that they need batteries, which now are bulky and heavy. To be able to get electric aircraft off the ground, the batteries need to be lighter and more compact. But the 2019 Paris Air Show was a giant leap forward in electric aviation.
The Eviation Alice
The Paris Air Show was a fantastic step towards electric aircraft. Why? Because we saw the first-ever official order by a commercial airline for an electric aircraft. Cape Air, a regional airline based in Massachusetts with over 9 seater Cessna aircraft just became the first airline ever to order the Eviation Alice aircraft, an all-electric 9-passenger plane. Cape Air itself operates mostly the Cessna 402 on routes around New England, mostly from Boston to places such as Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard. However, they also do have smaller operations out of Puerto Rico, Montana, and St. Louis. The Cessna 402s are decades old and are in need of replacement. In addition to ordering 100 more fuel-efficient Tecnam P2012 Traveller (also 9 seaters), they ordered an undisclosed amount of Eviation Alice’s (in the double digits).
The announcement of this order came along with Israel’s Eviation unveiling their new Alice aircraft at the Paris Airshow. Eviation’s Alice will be the first all-electric passenger (not just 2-4 seater Cessna type training aircraft) plane to take to the skies. But the three-engined Alice is still a commuter aircraft and not even the size of an Embraer E135, and its specifications show. Officially, it can only carry nine passengers, can fly at a speed of 260 knots at a height of 10,000 feet, and can fly up to 1,046 km (650 miles), although
The $4,000,000 priced Eviation Alice is going to start test flights this year, and is currently in development. Eviation plans to launch the aircraft in commercial service in 2021 after going through rigorous FAA certification. I would call that an optimistic timeline, but it’s very possibly that your flight to Nantucket (or any other flight on Cape Air) could be on an electric aircraft within two years! And there is a large market for aircraft such as the Alice. Most 9 seater sized aircraft are used by commuter airlines (such as on island hoppers), for smaller charter flights, by militaries, or even by cargo airlines. According to the airline’s CEO, the average age for the 40,000 9 seater aircraft in service is 40 years old. The Alice is a perfect replacement for aircraft such as the Cessna 208 or Britten Norman Islander, and there is a large market for it. So far, most electric aircraft have been experimental, although it’s possible that the Eviation Alice will be the first mass produced electric plane. Once on the market, I suspect the Alice will be very popular and will sell really well.
Jet-Fuel to Electric Conversions
Cape Air isn’t the only airline that wants to go electric. Harbour Air, a small airline based in Vancouver that operates sea planes on tourist and commercial flights around British Columbia (and to Seattle) wants to go electric too. I had a wonderful experience on a tour of Vancouver with Harbour Air last year on a 50+ year old DHC-3 Otter, an aircraft that Harbour air wants to convert to become an electric plane. Harbour Air plans to refit all of their fleet of 40+ small propellor with electric motors, in partnership with an Australian tech company called magniX. Harbour Air plans to start testing the electrification process of their fleet starting this year, although plans to start commercial flights with the refitted planes in 2022.
Harbour Air will be a pioneer in the refit process of electrifying aircraft; it is practical for them because most of their flights are less than 100 miles and therefore can use batteries, which generally have less range per volume used than gasoline does. Refitting smaller propeller aircraft with electric motors does present its own challenges, although it is more practical than developing whole new aircraft. It is likely that more small airlines will refit their smaller propeller aircraft within the next decade.
Other Electric Options
Electric planes on the small scale will be here within the next three years. The number of electric 9 seaters will grow at an exponential rate within the next decade. We soon will have electric aircraft that can fly most short-haul flights up to 650 miles. But the fact is that we don’t have the technological ability to have replacement aircraft for larger aircraft such as the Boeing 787, or even larger narrow body aircraft such as the 737. Large scale commercial aviation as a whole pollutes a lot more than regional or commuter planes, such as the aircraft that Harbour Air or Cape Air operate. Batteries can hold 40 times less energy per unit of weight, which means that with our current level of technology, fossil fuels are a lot more efficient than batteries. We simply, at this point in time, don’t have all the technology in place to have electric 737s. But we will get there, sooner or later.
Last year, Easyjet partnered with US startup Wright Electric aircraft to develop a fully electric plane to take to the skies by 2030. Now, there aren’t many details about the aircraft (which is still in the very early stages of development) besides a couple of pictures and the fact that EasyJet is partnering to manufacture it. Presumably, the aircraft would be able to seat from 100-200 passengers to be able to accommodate EasyJet, which operates aircraft that size. Wright Electric said that the plane, once produced, would be up to 50% quieter than jet aircraft and 10% cheaper than jet aircraft. However, the plane would only be able to fly a bit over 300 miles, so it wouldn’t be able to fly on medium-long-haul routes. The plane is still in the very preliminary stages of development, and it’s definitely not a done deal that the plane will even be made, but what’s important is that at least one major airline (EasyJet) is at least trying to develop an electric plane.
Unsurprisingly, there are a ton of other startups working on developing electric planes, both on a small and on a large scale. Startup Zunum Aerospace has been funded both by Boeing and JetBlue to develop electric aircraft in partnership with engine manufacturer Safran. They plan on having their first hybrid electric aircraft which can seat 12 passengers ready in 2022 (with a range of 1000 miles) and also plan on creating larger aircraft which will be ready in the later 2020s or 2030s. The plane will be powered off of batteries, although jet fuel can also extend its range and will be used mostly on commuter routes. SAS and Airbus also recently announced a partnership to develop hybrid or electric aircraft this year.
Electric planes are the future of aviation and are coming. And airlines will want them. Airlines are under an increasing amount of scrutiny because of emissions and face no choice but to use electric aircraft. Multiple airlines now have committed to developing electric aircraft, and I speculate more will in the near future. In addition, electric aircraft are cheaper and quieter than jet fuel powered planes. However, multiple technical challenges still do exist, such as developing long-range and larger electric aircraft or packing more energy into large batteries to make aircraft light enough to fly. It will still be quite a few years until we have electric aircraft flying from Los Angeles to Sydney, but it almost certainly won’t be as long for short-haul and commuter flights.
Biofuels
Electric aircraft might still be a bit down the line, especially on long-haul flights, so we have to figure out intermediate solutions. Biofuels are, by definition, fuels derived directly from living matter as opposed to fossil fuels. Biofuels are in fact in production today, and you very well may have been on a flight powered by fossil fuels if you departed (on select flights) from Los Angeles, Brisbane, Bergen, Stockholm, and Oslo. They’ve been around for nearly a decade now, but they still aren’t used on every flight. However, they are being developed and will be used more in the future.
What are Biofuels?
Biofuels can be derived from many types of organic compounds, from algae (or other plants) to palm oil to logging waste to other types of municipal waste. They are carbon neutral (or at least much more close to it than normal jet fuel) because the amount of carbon taken out of the air when the biomass is created is approximately the same as the carbon emissions released. That means that biofuels can in theory be used to almost completely make flights carbon neutral, without electric aircraft. Multiple studies have shown that biofuels can drop aviation emissions by at least 50%, although other studies have shown that they can reduce emissions by 70-85%. No matter how you look at it, consistently using biofuels in aviation would be a game changer.
The problem with biofuels is that they are harder and more expensive to create than regular jet fuel. However, unlike electric aircraft, the technology is in place and using sustainable aviation fuels is a solution that can be used with current aircraft. However, biofuels are being used in commercial flights and right as we speak, there are planes in the sky using biofuels. About 130,000 flights a year use biofuels, although that still is a small fraction of the 37 million commercial flights a year. Airlines are using them now, and more and more are either testing flights with them or have plans to use them in the future.
Which Airlines Use Biofuels?
In 2016, United Airlines began using biofuels out of their Los Angeles hub. For many of their Los Angeles departing flights, they use a 30/70 percent mixture, with 30% biofuel and 70% jet fuel. While that certainly is less than optimal, 30% is better than nothing. Since 2016, they have used about 2 million gallons of biofuel for their flights, and they have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050, which (hopefully) should be attainable. United was a pioneer in biofuels and is a leader in the usage of them and has recently committed to using 900 million gallons of biofuel over the next 10 years. JetBlue recently partnered with a biofuel company and committed to using 33 million gallons of biofuel over the next 10 years. Other airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific have committed to using biofuels over the next years.
Biofuels are expanding rapidly – I think that it’s almost certain that we will see an exponential growth in them over the next decade. We have the technology to develop them now, it’s just a matter of time before they get mass developed. Airlines see biofuels as the way that they can reduce emissions (and get good PR) in the near future, rather than waiting more decades for electric aircraft to come out. Liquid fuel planes will be around for decades, and biofuels are by far the easiest way to quickly and drastically lower emissions.
If used along with future more fuel efficient aircraft (such as the theoretical V wing shaped aircraft that has 20% better emissions than one of the world’s most fuel efficient planes: the A350), we can see aviation emissions drop a lot more – all done without electric aircraft. Here’s an idea as to how to fund the production of biofuels: the world gave a whopping 5.2 trillion USD in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in 2017 – how about putting some of those subsidies into the development of biofuels (or electric aircraft for that matter) instead, to actually help cut emissions in a way that would work…
Carbon Offsetts
While electric aircraft and biofuels are great, the fact is that neither of them are in widespread service yet. This final way to limit aviation emissions is something you can do right now while you are reading this article on your computer or phone. The basic idea of carbon offsets is that after you contribute to polluting the air with carbon, you (or a corporation) donates money to programs which contribute to taking carbon out of the air. The classic example of carbon offsetting is just by planting trees or preserving forests. By donating a specific sum of money per miles flown and depending on your class of travel, the basic idea is that by giving an extra sum of money to these programs, you individually will fly carbon neutral. It’s a great idea on the small scale, although it still doesn’t eliminate the carbon created by flying (which is why I spent a lot longer talking about electric aircraft and biofuels).
Carbon offsetting flights is not a new thing. It’s been around for years now. Delta was the first airline to partner with carbon offsetting programs to tie carbon offsets with their own system in 2007. Now, dozens of airlines have carbon offset programs (unfortunately, it does take a bit of digging to get to their pages). Those airlines include United (as part of their larger eco-skies program), Alaska, JetBlue, Delta, Air Canada, Lufthansa, KLM, Brussels Airlines, Qantas, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or Austrian Airlines. Airlines such as Emirates or Virgin Australia have individually contributed to carbon offset programs themselves.
There are tons of carbon offset programs, and therefore there isn’t a set amount of money that you have to donate per mile. On average, I’d say that most airlines say that you should donate about $2.00 per 1,000 miles flown in economy class, although some airlines say that you should pay a lot more than that, like Japan Airlines, which says that you should give about $20.00 for a 1,000 miles flight. Carbon offsets do reduce emissions, but using them isn’t as widespread as they should be, and that’s for two reasons:
Firstly, not many airlines tie carbon offset programs directly in with booking flights. The ability to purchase carbon offsets should be as simple as purchasing a seat at booking. If we truly want more people to use carbon offsets, airlines should put an option to buy carbon offsets at booking online, and the amount will be added to the bill. Simple. Secondly, with airfare being expensive, not many people will want to buy carbon offsets. Well, simple solution: buy cheaper tickets (possibly even using some of the strategies I talk about on this website???) if you want to put money aside to spend on carbon offsets. If you do fly, I would recommend that you do purchase carbon offsets (don’t worry, you don’t have to contribute the full amount that the programs suggest if you cant afford it!). Listed below are some programs for carbon offsetting your flight.
- United Airlines – Conservation International
- JetBlue – Carbon Fund
- Delta Air Lines Carbon Emissions Calculator
- Alaska Airlines – Carbon Fund
- Air Canada – Less
- Japan Airlines
- Qantas – Future Planet
- Lufthansa – Myclimate
- SAS Carbon Offset Program
- British Airways – Leapfrog
- Atmosfair
- Terrapass
Carbon offsets aren’t going to get rid of any emissions from aviation, but they can still help neutralize the negative effects of emissions that come from aviation.
Conclusion
It’s not worth denying – aviation does contribute emissions. Climate change is a threat, and the aviation industry should do its part to help. However, completely abandoning aviation is unfeasible, unpractical, and would do a lot of harm to economies worldwide. I would also personally invite legislators worldwide to subsidize companies that create electric aircraft or biofuels instead of subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. The best solution to make aviation go completely green is through electric aircraft, and they will be on the market within the next three years. However, it still will be a while until we have long-haul electric aircraft, which is why biofuels are so key in the meantime. Finally, if you want to help now, donating money to carbon offset programs is a way to indirectly reduce emissions that aviation creates. It won’t be easy to get aviation to become completely sustainable. There will be technical and monetary challenges. But aviation will get there.
What do you think is the best way that we can create a more eco-friendly aviation market?
Featured Image Credit: Matti Blume/Wikimedia Commons)
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