ZENITIA is a Horizon Europe SESAR project supporting Europe’s path to climate neutrality by 2050. The project identifies the challenges and opportunities posed by next-generation aircraft, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and blends, electric, hybrid-electric, and hydrogen-powered aircraft, and their integration into network operations.
The project aims to:
Future Needs is a full partner in ZENITIA, leading the project’s regulatory, operational, and policy guidance for the seamless integration of next-generation aircraft. Our goal is to translate the project’s scientific and operational results into actionable guidance for integrating next-generation fleets into airport and aerial operations, resulting in roadmaps extending to 2050.
Specifically, Future Needs leads:
Operational guidance for gate-to-gate mixed-fleet integration — generating in-depth insights into the operational, environmental, and infrastructural implications of next-generation aircraft, including traffic management and charging/refueling infrastructure, to provide recommendations for safe, efficient, and environmentally-friendly pathways for future fleets
Policy and economic instruments for environmental impact — quantifying the climate impact cost of both CO2 and non-CO2 effects, and evaluating the interaction between market-based instruments (ETS, CORSIA) and proposed operational concepts and technology choices, to identify the combination that balances adoption costs and climate benefits without compromising safety or capacity
Synthesis and roadmaps — consolidating regulatory, operational, and infrastructure guidance into 2035–2050 roadmaps, validated through participatory approaches with external stakeholders to assess relevance and secure buy-in through direct industry insight
Existing projections of next-generation aircraft performance, emissions, and operational readiness for critical milestone years, 2035, 2040, and 2050, remain rough and oversimplified. ZENITIA closes this gap through a rigorous, bottom-up approach:
