Eco-airship contract to launch 1,800 jobs in South Yorkshire

theguardian.com:

About 1,800 jobs are to be created in South Yorkshire building 10 new environmentally friendly airships.

Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a small Bedford-based company, announced on Wednesday it had signed a deal to provide a Spanish airline with 10 of its 100-passenger Airlander 10 helium-filled airships.

The aircraft, which the company says will have under a tenth of the CO2 footprint per passenger of jet planes, will be built at a new green aerospace manufacturing cluster in South Yorkshire.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said the commissioning of the Airlander showed that the UK was at the forefront of “revolutionary” greener aviation technology.

“Hybrid aircraft could play an important role as we transition to cleaner forms of aviation, and it is wonderful to see the UK right at the forefront of the technology’s development,” he said.

“This agreement enhances the possibility of the revolutionary, British-made and designed, Airlander 10 aircraft flying across Spanish skies. It is more proof of how the UK’s businesses are embracing new technology to drive growth and support high skilled UK jobs.”

The aircraft, which according to HAV will have a CO2 footprint per passenger of about 4.5kg compared with about 53kg on a jet plane, are expected to take to the skies with Spanish carrier Air Nostrum in 2026.

Carlos Bertomeu, Air Nostrum’s president, said: “The Airlander 10 will drastically reduce emissions and for that reason we have made this agreement with HAV. Sustainability, which is good news for everyone, is already a non-negotiable fact in the daily operations of commercial aviation.”

The airline, which currently operates flights for Iberia, did not state which routes it expected to operate the Airlander. HAV has