David Holden, regional sustainable aviation manager, HITRANS

In recent years, there’s been a lot of discussion around the considerable opportunities that the transition to net zero will bring across the country. While electrified railway lines (at least in the central belt) and EVs have become more normalised, and will largely make use of existing infrastructure, we don’t hear much about the work underway to make flight, which is responsible for 2.5% of global carbon emissions, a more sustainable transport option.

At the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE), we see the transition to net zero as an opportunity to bring an entirely new transport category, known as sustainable aviation, to service across the country. Imagine a new category of transport that can conveniently transfer you at an affordable fare, more quickly and with a significantly lower environmental footprint. Imagine connectivity less constrained by geography, cost and polluting technologies. This is the promise of future sustainable aviation.

Across the Highlands and Islands, we’re working with partners to trial a range of cutting-edge, new ‘green’ aviation tech. This ranges from new hybrid airships, long distance unmanned cargo aircraft “drones”, electric airplanes and seaplanes, to more traditional looking aircraft powered by sustainable fuels. This will transform aviation from its current format – where 92% of passengers make use of Scotland’s key international airports in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness – into an increasingly attractive prospect for regional journeys.

That’s all well and good, but this hinges on making sure that we can steer the sector down the correct strategic path in the next five years which will be crucial in determining the future of our industry. Key decisions made on bringing the technology to market will position the region as an early beneficiary through improved connectivity and also increase the likelihood of related investment and job creation.

The industry is at a critical point where failure to act will mean the further demise of regional aviation into a highly subsidised and smaller scale operation. Regional aviation today is a high cost, high fare, highly polluting activity which largely relies on increasing levels of subsidy. Aircraft are staying in service for longer, both passengers, airlines and airports are hit with higher costs. The cycle of higher costs from a lower number of flights resulting in higher fares requiring higher subsidies will continue. Regional aviation could become a service that Scots living in our most remote and rural areas will see diminish further and won’t consider using unless provided with significant subsidies.

The result is that the current traditional aviation at local and regional level will become centred around a very small footprint of viable routes, leading to a decline in overall connectivity which could ultimately mean further depopulation of the Highlands and Islands, as people are unable to access economic and social opportunities along with access to healthcare and other services that are readily available in other parts of the country.

The good news is that work is already underway to steer the sector down a path which harnesses the potential of sustainable aviation. At SATE, we want to achieve a revolution in the way that aviation is both thought of and used. We want aviation to be low cost, low fares and with a low carbon footprint. This is the exciting and profound change that this new aviation service can bring.

With funding from the UKRI Future Flight Challenge, SATE became the UK’s first low-carbon aviation test centre in 2020. The Highlands and Islands region has developed a world-leading capability and expertise, many ‘firsts’ both for the UK and wider have been completed in the North of Scotland. This includes the first hybrid electric passenger aircraft flight, the first long-distance, heavy lift, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations, and the first flight of an autonomous eVTOL (vertical take-off and landing) heavy-lift drone.

With such a strong track record, now’s the time to press our advantage and create a blueprint for the future of the sector that can be brought initially to service in Scotland and rolled out across the rest of the UK.

Working with our partners, we’ll rapidly increase the availability of new low or zero emission technologies to meet decarbonisation targets while also operating at significantly lower cost than current operations and critically, improving connectivity which is so key to economic and social development.

Lower operating costs make flying more accessible for everyone. They can mean reduced fares, increased connectivity, and even choice of aircraft. Aircraft with the capacity to land and take-off vertically reduce our dependence on traditional infrastructure like airports while providing access to routes that wouldn’t have previously been feasible.

We’re working to bring forward the technology that can deliver the reduction in emissions that we need, while also fitting into the integrated transport picture, to connect us like never before.