Airships Make a Comeback Promising Cleaner Aviation

A Spanish-based airline group has placed its first commercial order for ten Airlander airships recently.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a UK-based leader in sustainable aircraft technologies, announced an aircraft reservation agreement with Air Nostrum Group for its pioneering hybrid aircraft—Airlander 10.

Air Nostrum Group has reserved ten, one hundred passenger capacity Airlander 10 aircraft which are due for delivery in order to begin operations as the inaugural airline after the beginning of 2026.

HAV, which previously developed Airlander in Bedfordshire, is set to launch production of the fleet this year in South Yorkshire, UK in an initiative that is expected to create over 1,800 skilled jobs in green aerospace technologies across the region.

Airlander 10 hybrid aircraft offers a combination of low emissions, fuel burn, noise, and operation costs basically designed to reduce carbon emissions in aviation.

Airships are cleaner forms of aviation

Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Secretary of State for Business said “Hybrid aircraft could play an important role as we transition to cleaner forms of aviation, and it is wonderful to see the UK right at the forefront of the technology’s development. This agreement enhances the possibility of the revolutionary, British-made and designed British Airlander 10 aircraft flying across Spanish skies.”

Air Nostrum President, Carlos Bertomeu, said: “We are exploring each and every possible way to reduce our carbon footprint. This is something that we have been doing for many years. The Airlander 10 will drastically reduce emissions and for that reason, we have made this agreement with HAV.”

Tom Grundy CEO, Hybrid Air Vehicles, said: “Airlander is designed to deliver a better future for sustainable aviation services, enable new transport networks and provide rapid growth options for our customers.”

Airships to reduce carbon emissions

The global aviation industry produces around 2.1 percent of all human-induced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Aviation is responsible for more global warming than implied by its carbon footprint alone.

According to research, aviation could consume up to one-sixth of the remaining temperature budget required to limit warming by 1.5˚ Celsius by 2050.

Carbon emissions due to commercial aviation in the European Union increased by 30 percent between 2013 and 2019 to 151.8 million metric tons. Of this total, 81.6 million metric tons were attributable to international flights.

With the anticipated inaugural launch of the hybrid aircraft Airlander 10  by 2026, greenhouse gas emissions will hopefully have been reduced.