United Airlines is aiming to have electric aircraft flying regional routes by the end of the decade, part of the company's goal to fully reduce i

United Airlines is aiming to have electric planes flying by 2030

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2022-10-06 20:30:49

United Airlines is aiming to have electric aircraft flying regional routes by the end of the decade, part of the company's goal to fully reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050.

Those battery-powered aircraft are being developed by Swedish start-up Heart Aerospace, from which United placed an order for 100 planes in July 2021. United also invested an undisclosed amount in the company through its venture funding arm at the time of the deal.

United has pushed heavily into a variety of lower-emission forms of aviation, not only announcing plans to buy electric air taxis and vertical aircraft, as well as hydrogen-electric engines but also investing in the companies behind the burgeoning technologies.

"We cannot continue doing and operating our business the way we do; it is imperative that we change it, and the way we're going to change it is through investing in technology," Mike Leskinen, United Airlines Ventures president, said in an interview as part of CNBC's ESG Impact virtual conference on Thursday.

"Existing technology is going to either cause us to fly less, which is an unacceptable alternative, or continue with a carbon footprint, which we believe is equally unacceptable," Leskinen said.

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