Etihad Airways CE Tony Douglas has called for the aviation industry to work together with all its stakeholders – including policy makers, regulators and passengers – in order to hit its net-zero goals by 2050. Speaking aboard the 31 March inaugural commercial flight of the airline’s new Airbus A350-1000 – dubbed the Sustainability 50 – Douglas said there was “no silver bullet” to cutting aviation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. “The physics of flight mean we cannot achieve that emissions target with only one or two big initiatives – it requires many initiatives, big and small, to come together,” he says. Douglas highlights a flight conducted in October last year between London Heathrow and Abu Dhabi base as an illustration of the savings that can be achieved – but also the challenges that still need to be overcome. Operated with the carrier’s Boeing 787-10 Greenliner – an aircraft that has been configured to trial new environmental technologies – the flight cut CO2 emissions by 72% compared with the same service in 2019 using an A380. While the frugality of the Boeing twinjet over the four-engined superjumbo was a major contributor to the greenhouse gas reduction, the flight was also operated using a 38% blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), albeit this was less than hoped for. “We simply could not get the 50% we wanted,” he says. Story has more.<br/>
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Despite the paint problems experienced by other Airbus A350 operators, the boss of Etihad Airways remains sanguine about the potential for similar issues to afflict its fleet of the carbonfibre widebody. Gulf rival Qatar Airways in particular has been vocal about the issue of skin-paint deterioration on several of its A350s and its increasingly bitter dispute with the airframer is now the subject of litigation in the UK. But Etihad CE Tony Douglas, speaking during the carrier’s inaugural passenger service with the A350-1000 on 31 March, said he was not surprised that the problem had arisen. “We had a similar problem on the 787 when they got to three years old,” he says. “We managed it together with Boeing.” Just like the A350, the Dreamliner features a composite fuselage and wing. In Douglas’s view, the technology used to ensure the paint adheres to the carbonfibre skin of the aircraft is susceptible to decay when exposed to direct UV light, which increases in strength at altitude. The flexibility of composite wings compared with their metallic equivalents may also be a contributory factor, Douglas argues. “Am I surprised? No, because it’s composite. But we solved it with Boeing and if we find ourselves over time with a similar challenge I’m sure we will solve it without any kind of fuss or drama with Airbus.” Meanwhile, Douglas insists that Etihad will continue to serve the Russian market despite the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. <br/>