Regional Gateway editor Chloë Greenbank summarises the latest happenings across airports serving business, regional and low-fare routes.
In a week that’s seen 16-year-old Greta Thunberg named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, for her campaign to raise global awareness about climate change, the aviation industry has also taken a significant step in its path to achieving a more sustainable future.
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Harbour Air’s all-electric seaplane made its debut flight over the Fraser River in Canada. Harbour Air’s CEO, Greg McDougall, was at the control of the six-seater de Havilland Beaver plane, which had been converted to use a MagniX 750-horsepower Magni500 electric motor.
The plane took off from the airline’s terminal south of Vancouver’s airport and four minutes later touched down on the river in front of Harbour Air’s dock. Onlookers described the noise made by the plane as it flew by as a quiet buzz. A helicopter hovering above and even the cheer from the crowd was much louder.
It’s not the first time all-electric aircraft have taken to the air, but MagniX and Harbour Air are billing their converted Beaver as the “world’s first commercial all-electric airplane.” As part of the airline’s vision to connect communities with clean, efficient and affordable electric air travel, Harbour Air plans to transform all its seaplanes into an all-electric commercial fleet.
This week has also seen the European airport industry express support for the European Commission’s pioneering EU policy overhaul, the European Green Deal. According to the roadmap set out by the European Commission on Wednesday 11 December, every major aspect of the European economy, including transport, is to be re-evaluated in light of the imperatives of the global climate and ecological emergency.
“Global warming is existential. This means it is not just an environmental or business issue, but a defining moral issue. Europe’s airports are behind the Commission’s Green Deal, and we are urging EU States to support and endorse it,” said Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s director general.
Although Thunberg has brought ‘flygskam’ or ‘flight shaming’ into the spotlight by refusing to travel by plane and instead choosing to travel by boat, it’s important to acknowledge and promote the efforts that are being made by stakeholders across the aviation industry to make flying cleaner, greener and more efficient.
In the words of Thunberg herself: “We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.”
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