Loganair chief says Shetland is ‘perfect’ for new hybrid-electric planes

Shetland is the “perfect location” for new hybrid-electric planes, Loganair’s chief executive has said.

Luke Farajallah said the airline’s partnership with Heart Aerospace would “put Shetland and Orkney on the map”.

Loganair announce its plans earlier this month to bring the new ES-30 plane into service by the end of the decade.

And Mr Farajallah was keen to share more about his plans with members of the Shetland external transport forum on Tuesday.

Mr Farajallah said the first ES-30 had just been “rolled out of the hangar” in Sweden and would soon be headed for the Mojave desert in the US for testing.

He said the first testing and certification could take place as soon as next year.

And by the time it is ready to enter service in the UK, Mr Farajallah said he expected the technology to have developed to extend is electric flight range.

Currently, it is estimated to have a range of 200km in electric mode, with 30 passengers on board, extending to 800km with the use of conventional turboprop engines.

Forum member Alex Armitage noted that a common critique of hybrid cars was the extra energy required to transport two types of engine and asked whether that was a problem for hybrid aircraft too.

Mr Farajallah said the principle was similar to hybrid cars.

However, he said the added safety of having conventional engines as back up for the electric propulsion systems made this technology a useful “interim phase” in the journey towards fully electric aircraft.

“Yes, you could argue that you are are carrying excess weight, but you are doing that with the view to it being a very short stepping stone between this and al all electric solution,” he added.

Mr Farajallah said the project could put Shetland and Orkney “on the map”.

“This is very exciting and we think Shetland and Orkney represent the perfect location from which a project like this can be commenced.

“We will be up there fairly shortly to demonstrate how and where this could be used because it is absolutely designed for regional aircrafts.”

Mr Farajallah said the aviation industry saw the hybrid technology as the “logical stepping stone” towards a fully electric plane.

He said the “leap” to battery powered planes was “still some years away”.

“This is a very logical thing to do that’s not that far away,” he added.

Mr Farajallah said he would be pleased to attend events in Shetland to provide people with more information about the new planes.

He stressed Loganair had not yet placed any orders with the Swedish manufacturers but he was working with the company to demonstrate why it would be a beneficial step.

A recent poll in The Shetland Times found that 52 per cent of respondents would not wish to fly in a hybrid-electric plane