Guillaume Faury: Airbus boss calls for support in reducing CO₂ in aviation

The CEO of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, is committed to decarbonizing the aviation for more global cooperation. The plan to reduce CO₂ emissions in aviation to zero by 2050 is in place, said Faury at the Europe 2024 conference in Berlin in an interview with the editor-in-chief of ZEIT ONLINE, Jochen Wegner. “But we need a larger framework,” he added, demanding: “We have to work together.” There are currently too many regionally differing regulations, especially in Europe.

According to Faury, Airbus itself relies entirely on hydrogen to reduce emissions. Next year, the first small aircraft powered by CO₂-neutral fuel will come onto the market, he said. However, in order to make progress here on a large scale, strong investments and a “clear and stable framework” are needed. There is still a long way to go, “but the world is making progress here,” said Faury.

Airbus is currently working on decarbonization by replacing older aircraft with high emissions with more modern, more energy-efficient aircraft that already consume significantly less fuel. According to Faury, Airbus uses so-called Saf (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) as a bridge fuel – an artificially produced fuel that does not require fossil raw materials such as petroleum and causes fewer CO₂ emissions. The difficulty here, however, is that these fuels are significantly more expensive than the kerosene previously used, said Faury. Here too, global regulations were missing.

Airbus boss is cautious about Boeing’s problems

In general, however, the potential of hydrogen is enormous because of its high energy density, said Faury. This amounts to 33,000 kilowatt hours per kilo – compared to 12,000 kilowatt hours for conventional aircraft fuel. An electric battery achieves a maximum of 1,000 kilowatt hours per kilo and is therefore not an option for aviation.

The Airbus boss was cautious about the ongoing technical problems with aircraft from US competitor Boeing. Aviation is an industry in which quality and safety have the highest priority, said Faury. Airplanes are by far the safest means of transport in the world. “The more accidents we have, the less each one of them is accepted,” he added – this is actually good news for passengers. There is a lot of pressure in the industry, and the supply chains have not yet been fully restored due to the effects of the corona pandemic. Airbus is drawing the lesson from the incidents to learn “and improve.”