Nordic airline Wideroe launches unit for emissions-free flying

Wideroe, the Nordics' largest regional airline, is setting up a subsidiary to help it develop an emissions-free airline business, its CE said. Privately-owned Wideroe serves short-haul routes in a sparsely populated region with few train lines and challenging geography. It has 40 Bombardier Dash 8 propeller planes and 3 EmbraerE190-E2 jets. Wideroe plans to have its first zero-emissions plane flying in 2026 and aims to replace its 26 Dash 8-100 and -200, which will be obsolete between 2030 and 2035, with zero-emissions planes, either electric or using hydrogen as fuel. Called Wideroe Zero and launching on Friday, the new company would help Wideroe achieve its aim of a zero-, or near-zero, emissions fleet, ChE Stein Nilsen said. "To be free to think outside the box we decided to establish a new company with the main target of finding this path to find a more sustainable (business)," he said. Wideroe Zero would also try to find new market opportunities, he added, when the airline industry, which accounts for 2.5% of global CO2 emissions in 2018, according to Our World in Data, is under pressure to be more sustainable. New technologies are disrupting the industry too, Nilsen said, citing the emergence of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) as an example of the rapid change that Wideroe wants to take advantage of.<br/>