Norway’s Wideroe to fly first zero-emission passenger plane

Wideroe AS, the Norwegian regional airline known for flying to fjords in the high north, plans to use small electric-powered aircraft to take passengers on zero-emission flights by 2026.

The company reached a deal to collaborate with Embraer SA’s air-taxi unit, Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions Inc., it said Wednesday in a statement, trumpeting the arrangement during the COP26 climate summit.

Wideroe is also fast approaching the need to replace its fleet of De Havilland Canada Dash 8 turboprops for its Norwegian short-haul network, it said. The carrier intends to start bringing in aircraft powered by battery, fuel cells or hydrogen for that purpose by 2030, it said.

With Embraer, Wideroe plans to examine new opportunities for passenger travel, including vertical take-off operations in Scandinavia. 

“We have established Wideroe Zero because we need the freedom to think afresh,” Andreas Kollbye Aks, CEO of the newly established Wideroe Zero, said in the statement. “There are established ways of doing things in every existing airline. Running a zero-emissions fleet is going to be completely different.”