Welcome back to In/Flight!

It’s been a busy start to the new year in the world of commercial aviation, with the crash of Japan Airlines flight 516 and then Boeing’s 737 MAX woes seeming to never end. But while the spotlight has understandably focused on these two incidents, there continues to be a bunch of exciting press around the future state of aviation and the technologies propelling the industry forward. My favorite story this week comes from the Financial Times on why the UK is woefully behind in meeting its target for SAF aviation fuel production and the need for greater government intervention. Big challenge for the UK. Even bigger opportunity.

As always, if you’ve got an interesting story you’d like to share here or suggestions for how to make this newsletter more useful to you drop me a line - happy reading, and flying!

Michael 

Long haul reads

Five predictions for advanced air mobility in 2024 - SMG Consulting has been closely tracking and supporting advanced air mobility since the new sector’s earliest days when there were certainly more doubters than backers, reports FutureFlight. Now, SMG is out with five predictions for the next 12 months. They include the view that German company Volocopter will be the first Western manufacturer to certify an eVTOL aircraft, but not in time for the company to run demonstration flights at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Another prediction: that the FAA will issue a type inspection authorization to Joby Aviation for its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft. 

Carbon removal is critical to reaching net-zero aviation by 2050 - In '22, the industry accounted for 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. SAF is promising, but even if it gets going big time, is estimated to only address about 60% of the industry's net-zero needs. Enter carbon removal. American Airlines recently announced the purchase of carbon credits from startup Graphyte. All Nippon Airways also purchased a sizeable chunk of credits from 1PointFive. Others, like Airbus and Air Canada are investing directly in CC companies. Good progress. But so much more to do. 

🏄 East African Airlines Commit to Surf Air Mobility’s plan to electrify Cessna Caravan Aircraft - US based Surf Air will be the launch customer for the conversion packaging, for which they are working to gain an FAA STC.

🛬 SAF production in the UK is not a SAFE bet - Industry bosses call on the UK government to help meet their mandated target of SAF reaching 10% of the UK’s annual jet fuel consumption by 2030. Without further state intervention, the UK risks falling behind other countries in SAF production.

🚙 Flying cars are all the rage at CES - pretty neat looking ‘cars’, but lots to do before they appear on your neighbor’s driveway. Guess some HOAs will need to modify their ‘one car per driveway’ rule!

💾 Airbus is collecting a ton of data on more than 100 airports across the US - led by their Acubed innovation unit, Airbus aims to be a first mover in advanced automation in commercial aviation. Check out the video!

🇯🇵 Japan’s $20B Kansai Airport, Osaka, is sinking at an alarming rate - the third busiest airport in the country is sinking much faster than anticipated. Earthquakes aren’t helping. Is there a tech fix?

📱 Do you really need to put your phone in airplane mode? - Spoiler alert: There is not a single definitive incident where cellular technology was solely responsible for a serious safety issue.