A Nordic initiative to drive the development of electric aircraft is now being launched. Funded by Nordic Innovation (an organization under the Nordic Council of Ministers), a platform is created where Nordic players gather to develop the future of electric aviation.
“Technological innovations are key in solving aviation's CO2 emission challenge”, says Jaakko Schildt, Chief Operating Officer, Finnair. “In this project we are concretely creating the future of electric aviation, together, and taking an important step towards carbon-neutral flying.”
“We will be a Nordic network that works with both infrastructure, industry issues and new business models”, says Maria Fiskerud, project manager for The Nordic Network for Electric Aviation (NEA).
The NEA network will organize workshops and other events to build knowledge and cooperation in the Nordic countries. At present, the network has eleven members: Air Greenland, Avinor, Braathens Regional Airlines, El-fly AS, Finnair, Heart Aerospace, Iceland Air, NISA (Nordic Innovation Sustainable Aviation), RISE, SAS and Swedavia.
The network has four focus areas with clear objectives for driving the growth of electric aircraft: standardizing electric air infrastructure in the Nordic countries, developing business models for regional point-to-point connectivity between Nordic countries, developing aircraft technology for Nordic weather conditions and creating a platform for European and global collaborations.