Air New Zealand Head of Network Planning Ashleigh Walsh (left) and Icelandair Director of Revenue Management and Pricing Matthías Sveinbjörnsson at Routes World 2023.
ISTANBUL—Icelandair and Air New Zealand are closely following electric aircraft developments, with a view to using these new technologies on short-haul domestic flights—and possibly beyond.
“These are really going to be ideally suited for, at least initially, our regional networks,” she said.
New Zealand’s terrain means trains are not a viable alternative to air travel.
“We actually have a pretty huge regional and domestic network, so some of these smaller regional routes will be ideal for testing those aircraft,” Walsh said. “We're looking to have our first commercial demonstration flight by 2026 and hope to start replacing our [Dash 8-300] fleet by about 2030.”
Iceland is another country whose terrain rules out rail alternatives. Matthías Sveinbjörnsson, Icelandair director of revenue management and pricing, believes electric technologies have potential.
Icelandair is working with both Heart Aerospace and Universal Hydrogen. Heart Aerospace is developing a 30-seat electric regional aircraft, while Universal Hydrogen is working on a hydrogen conversion for the Dash 8.
“We foresee that we can cover the domestic network fully in Iceland with electric aircraft. The [sector] lengths in Iceland are not that long,” Sveinbjörnsson said.
He could even envision the potential for electric aircraft operating transatlantic flights from Iceland, leveraging its geographic position.
“We could even potentially see that Iceland could be a stepping stone across the Atlantic. We could reach Europe, Glasgow and the like, and maybe continue the journey across the Atlantic on electric—hopefully [we could be] the first one,” Sveinbjörnsson added.
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