A plan to begin operating the world’s first zero-emissions airline in Scotland has been dashed after the green entrepreneur Dale Vince appointed liquidators.
Ecojet Airlines was unveiled in the summer of 2023 promising to be “the airline for a Green Britain”.
A small fleet of 19-seater turbo-prop planes would be fuelled by kerosene for the first year until ready to use hydrogen-electricity powertrains.
The target was for the first four planes to be capable of flying 300 miles by 2025 and to begin operating 500 mile journeys – carrying 70 passengers to and from Europe – by the end of the decade.
However, it struggled to raise funds, including £10 million required by the Civil Aviation Authority, and by January last year most of the staff had been laid off.
Provisional liquidators from insolvency firm Opus were appointed to the firm on 14 January “following a voluntary liquidation initiated by the company’s board”.
Mr Vince, a Labour party donor who runs the green energy firm Ecotricity, had bankrolled the airline since its inception, but said he has “paused” his investment.
“We remain committed to electrifying all forms of transport – aviation is the last frontier and the hardest,” he told the Flight Global trade website at the end of last month.
“It’s taking longer than we hoped to get the technology and regulatory pieces of the puzzle in alignment, and so we’re pausing work at this time,” he said.
“This is a vital frontier in the move to net zero, green living, whatever you choose to call it – and it’s absolutely doable. It’s a matter of when, not if.”
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