Airports Are Going Electric From the Ground Up
Hybrid aircraft might still be far in the future, but getting to your gate is getting cleaner and quieter.
It’s electric. (The buses, that is.)
Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images
Last week, Uber Technologies Inc. hosted its second annual Elevate Summit for “on-demand aviation.” Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg that the company “can’t be just about cars, it has to be about mobility,” with the company unveiling its plans for an all-electric air taxi. Meanwhile, Boeing Co. is developing hybrid electric aircraft, which could “become competitive with other forms of regional transportation like rail and road,” a company executive told my Bloomberg colleague Bryony Collins. Boeing hopes the aircraft will eventually transport cargo as well as people.
Inexpensive, reliable flying personal transportation is a decades-old dream, and realizing it may still take decades yet. But electrification is already underway at airports, if not in the skies.