Leading aviation finance company Avolon has partnered with Airbus to investigate the financing aspects and options for hydrogen-powered commercial aircraft. The work will form part of Airbus’s ZeroE project.
The OEM unveiled the project in 2020 to pioneer technology for hydrogen-powered flight and to develop the ecosystem required to support it. The tie-up with Avolon explores financing and commercialization options, and how the leasing model could support them.
Avolon already sees itself as an advocate of sustainable aviation and has invested in Vertical Aerospace, a UK-based developer of eVTOL aircraft. It has also invested in sustainable aviation fuel production.
“It will take a wide ecosystem of contributors to meet the challenge of hydrogen-powered commercial flight, and Airbus is playing a crucial role in bringing partners together,” said Avolon president and chief commercial officer Paul Geaney. “While we continue to focus on supporting our customers in modernizing their fleets with lower-emissions aircraft, it is also vital we look beyond that at what can further drive our industry’s decarbonization.”