In My Perspective

After four long years, it was very exciting to be back at the Farnborough Air Show! And in every sense, it was a very warm reunion for the world's top aerospace industry representatives.

Airbus proudly delivered a first full-size wing prototype or ‘demonstrator’ that will help mature next-generation wing technologies, joined the world’s largest clean hydrogen infrastructure investment fund and showed off our A220 and A350 in this year's static display.

The Latin America region was well represented by LATAM Airlines Group, who ordered 17 A321neo aircraft to further expand their route offering and international network, rounding out their total A320neo order book to a bold 100. The airline also confirmed that they plan to incorporate the A321XLR to complement their long haul operations.

LATAM's strategic vision and sustainability ambitions were on full display when they proudly joined six other world leading airlines in a public commitment to explore opportunities for a future supply of carbon removal credits from Direct Air Carbon Capture technology, known as DACCS for short. This high-potential technology involves filtering and removing CO2 emissions directly from the air using high powered fans. Once removed from the air, the CO2 is safely and permanently stored in geologic reservoirs. Since the aviation industry cannot capture CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere at source, a direct air carbon capture and storage solution would allow the sector to extract the equivalent amount of emissions from its operations directly from atmospheric air. Carbon removals via direct air capture technology complement other solutions that deliver CO2 reductions, such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), by addressing remaining emissions that cannot be directly eliminated. Learn more about DAACS here and about how the capture of pure CO2 can be reused for the production of other sustainable solutions, such as Power-to-Liquid.

During the show Airbus also booked firm orders from easyJet for 56 A320neo Family aircraft as part of the airline's fleet renewal. Delta Air Lines also firmed up orders for 12 A220-300 aircraft, bringing their total firm order for A220s to 107 aircraft and making them the airline with the most A220 aircraft on order.

After the show, Airbus was proud to deliver JetSMART's first A321neo, which started commercial operations in mid-August. To learn more about how the aircraft is helping the airline expand its international network, while supporting their sustainability targets, read this edition Spotlight Interview with JetSMART CEO Estuardo Ortiz.