Airbus has postponed its plans to fly a hydrogen-powered aircraft by 2035, marking a significant setback for the aviation industry’s ambitions to reach net zero emissions. The decision, which was relayed to staff on Thursday, indicates that the short-range hydrogen aircraft will now enter service later than initially planned.
Despite earlier optimistic statements—including a recent comment to the Financial Times that “2035 remains the ambition” for the aircraft—Airbus clarified on Friday that its hydrogen-powered plane is “expected to come later than 2035.” The company reaffirmed its commitment to developing a commercially viable, zero-emission aircraft powered by hydrogen, even as it faces considerable hurdles.
Airbus acknowledged the substantial challenges involved in creating a global hydrogen ecosystem. “Developing a hydrogen ecosystem — including infrastructure, production, distribution, and regulatory frameworks — is a huge challenge requiring global collaboration and investment,” the company said in its statement. Key enablers such as the availability of renewable hydrogen at scale have been progressing more slowly than anticipated, Airbus added.
The aerospace giant has long been more bullish than its U.S. rival Boeing on the potential of hydrogen to decarbonise aviation. Since 2020, Airbus engineers have been exploring several zero-emission concepts that rely on hydrogen as the primary power source. However, French labor unions have reported that the entry into service could be delayed by as much as five to ten years. They also noted that Airbus intends to cut its hydrogen initiatives budget by 25 percent and halt plans to test hydrogen fuel cell engines on a modified A380 superjumbo.
Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury recently highlighted the complexity of the task ahead: “It’s not enough to have a plane if you have no infrastructure, no hydrogen in the right place, at the right time, at the right quantity, and the right price.”
The broader aviation industry appears to be recalibrating its decarbonisation strategies. In an update to a net zero roadmap published on Tuesday, five aviation industry groups projected that hydrogen-powered aircraft would account for just 6 percent of net emissions reductions by 2050, a notable decline from the 20 percent estimated in 2021. As a result, the industry is increasingly turning to sustainable aviation fuels—derived from crops, waste cooking oil, and other non-fossil fuel feedstocks—which can reduce net CO₂ emissions by around 70 percent compared to conventional jet fuel, albeit at higher costs and limited production volumes.
