United Airlines and Mesa Airlines are buying electric aircrafts from a Swedish startup, to make air travel more eco-friendly.

In July, United Airlines announced that they would be buying ES-19 planes. They plan on purchasing 100 of these 19 seat, zero emission planes from a Swedish company called Heart Aerospace. United plans on being able to use these planes by 2026. Since they can only carry a small amount of people, these planes would be used mostly for short distance flights. They have routes planned from their major hubs, such as from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Purdue University Airport and another route from San Francisco International Airport to Modesto City-County Airport. Heart Aerospace claims that around 4% of emissions around the world come from flights that are less than 200 kilometers (124 miles), and 9% are from flights less than 400 kilometers (250 miles). Using electric planes for these shorter distances would be beneficial in lowering these emissions, which is United Airlines’ plan. They have a goal to reduce 100% of their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. They also want to achieve this without using the traditional carbon offsets, which are projects for reducing a person’s carbon footprint. These offsets are projects like planting a certain number of trees, improved forest management or capturing greenhouse gas emissions coming from a landfill. There are online calculators that calculate how much carbon dioxide a person is producing by going on a plane somewhere and estimating how much they need to do to cancel it out. United Airlines’ goal is to significantly reduce their carbon emissions without resorting to projects like these. 

They are not, however, the only airline that wants to reduce their emissions. Mesa Airlines, a regional American airline, has partnered with them and has purchased the same amount of ES-19s. The CEO of Mesa Airlines, Jonathan Ornstein, has spoken about the opportunities of the electric aircrafts and that it should cost less to operate. Some areas are too small and too close to large cities to have flights, but they  can operate profitably with electric planes.Since these electric planes are so small and will cost less to operate, it can become a viable method of transportation to these smaller cities, making it easier to bring people into these areas. 

Heart Aerospace, the company manufacturing the ES-19s, believes that electric aircrafts are the solution to lowering carbon emissions caused by air travel. Those emissions make up around 2% of global emissions overall, and by 2050, that number is expected to increase to between 12%-27%, and eliminating the emissions caused from short distance flights with electric planes can prevent that. Since the planes are small, they can use small runways that are more common in smaller cities, and it will be beneficial to them as it will be easier for people to travel. Also, like Ornstein said, the planes will be much cheaper to maintain as the electric motors reduce the cost of maintenance by 90%, and fuel costs will decrease between 50%-70%.

Beyond Heart Aerospace, there are other companies developing electric planes. Wright Electric is one of them, and they are developing a 100 seater plane to be released in 2026. They are also developing one that will have 186 seats and will be able to fly 800 miles, but that is estimated to be completed in 2030. Many other companies are researching electric aviation, as they believe it to be the future of air travel. Even NASA has been researching this, having developed and begun flying their X-57 electric airplane. Airline companies are conscious of their large environmental impact, and many large ones have agreed to participate in the UN’s plan to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The use of electric aircrafts would help these companies a lot in reaching this goal, and because of this, the Swiss Bank USB believes that by 2035, a quarter of air travel will be electric.

RELATED CONTENT

The Trans-Siberian Railway and the Lost Art of Train Travel

Destination Travel in the Age of Social Media

Katherine Lim is an undergraduate student at Vassar College studying English literature and Italian. She loves both reading and writing, and she hopes to pursue both in the future. With a passion for travel and nature, she wants to experience more of the world and everything it has to offer.