The Allplane Podcast

International Airlines Group (IAG) is one of the world’s largest airline groups, with British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and LEVEL in its ranks. And like other leading industry players in such a technology-driven industry, IAG wants to have first row in the innovation arena.This is the reason it created IAGi, where “i” stands for “Innovation”, a division which has the mission to keep the airline group ahead of the game when it comes to technology. It does so by deploying two different approaches: running an accelerator for startups aiming to make a splash in the travel and aviation industries, and investing directly through a £200 million (€235/$265M) venture capital fund.Our guest in today’s episode is, precisely, the man running these programmes. Nacho Tovar, Group Innovation Director at IAG, is an aerospace engineer turned venture capitalist. Nacho will tell us all about how the different tracks available to startups and which criteria IAGi uses to invest in certain startups. We will also chat with Nacho about the shifting tech priorities in the airline world and about the different successes that IAGi has been collecting among the more than 120 startups that have passed through its acceleration or investment programmes in the last decade.If you are into aviation and innovation, you can’t miss this episode, since it will provide you some truly direct insights about how a major airline group views innovation and about the options that aspiring entrepreneurs can leverage to work directly with the five carriers of IAG and perhaps even get financial backing from the group.So, tune in for a fascinating conversation about airlines, innovation and investment with Nacho Tovar, head of IAGi!

In the debate about how to aviation’s contribution to global warming there is a factor that is getting an increasing amount of attention: contrails.These happen when water vapour and particles from the aircraft’s jet exhaust form little crystals upon entering in contact with the very cold air that prevails at high altitudes. Depending on the circumstances of the time and place, those little crystals can then have one of two opposite effects.They can either the help cool the surface of the planet by reflecting sunlight outwards, or, more often than not, they contribute to the warming by acting as a heat trap that prevents infrared radiation from dissipating.So, if the aviation industry wants to up its commitment to preventing global warming, what can it do to prevent contrail formation?Our guest in this episode of the podcast is Maxime Meijers, founder and CEO of Estuaire, a French startup which is using technology to help airlines manage the contrail challenge.In fact, Estuaire’s technology has the potential to help airlines optimize their flight plans for a whole set of variables, since it uses artificial intelligence and data models to find the optimal flight path. However, in this conversation we focused on contrail avoidance, since this has been so far Estuaire’s very distinctive value proposition.With Maxime we talk about how this technology works, how is it implemented on a practical level and what is the business model that led Estuaire on the path of growth, with a number of prominent carriers, such as Vueling and Air France, using it for real.Tune in for a fascinating conversation about the science and business of contrail prevention!

Marie Owens Thomsen, Chief Economist and SVP Sustainability at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has emerged as one of the most outspoken voices in the aviation decarbonization debate. Is the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) fit for purpose? Are the EU's current sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandates fit for purpose? Are airlines carrying a fair share of the decarbonization cost burden? These are some of the questions Marie addresses regularly at industry conferences, and that we discuss in depth in today's episode. As a preview: while agreeing with the Net Zero 2050 goal, Marie - and IATA for that matter - believes the current regulatory framework in Europe is badly designed and fails to account for the dynamics of both the aviation and energy industries. True, IATA is not an impartial actor in this discussion, as it obviously represents the interests of its member airlines. But as the main target of these regulations, airlines are certainly entitled to have their voice heard, if only because, with an average profit margin that has never exceeded the low single digits, any poorly designed regulation can seriously damage an industry that is, after all, one of the pillars of global economic growth and an and an enabler of trade, tourism, human connection, and all sort of other opportunities.IATA has made its case with figures and studies, yet it's often Marie's sharp commentary that often drives IATA’s point home. It is illustrative that this conversation was, in fact, originally planned to last around 45 minutes, but the topic has so many consequential angles that we ended up talking for considerably longer, discussing what could realistically be done to ensure the airline industry meets its environmental commitments without putting its future in jeopardy. So tune in for a fascinating conversation about sustainability, environmental regulation and what these mean for airlines with IATA's Chief Economist, Marie Owens Thomsen!

The path towards electric aviation is not an easy one. On this podcast we have talked on previous occasions about some of the challenges it faces, from getting batteries with enough energy density to setting up a supply chain from scratch.One area we have so far - until now, at least! - paid little attention to is that of ground infrastructure.Our guest for this episode, Dr. Stefan Breunig, is the co-founder and managing director of Albatross, a German company that is working precisely in this space.The electric aviation revolution will need to get supplied by a reliable stream of green electricity, but it also represents an opportunity for airports and other players in the aviation ecosystem to develop new lines of business which stretch well beyond aviation.Can airports become green electricity hubs? What are the challenges the industry faces on this front, in Germany and elsewhere?Tune in for a fascinating conversation with one of Europe’s top electric aviation experts!

eVTOL developers promise thousands of aircraft by the start of next decade, but is this realistic?I am not even talking about the long and costly certification processes, let’s assume, for the sake of simplicity, that this is sorted. What about the capacity of aerospace supply chains, already strained trying to cope with the demand from traditional aircraft makers, to serve this new growth market?Are the current processes and technologies flexible enough to respond to this market demand?We are going to talk about all this with this episode’s guest, Stefan Schamberger, an aerospace supply chain expert who knows the world of aerostructures manufacturing inside out.In this industry analysis writings, Stefan raises also an interesting point: what if the ultimate value delivered by the whole advanced air mobility (AAM) revolution was to facilitate the advent of the new generation mid-sized airliner which both Boeing and Airbus are aiming to launch some time in the middle of the next decade?How transfereable are skills and technologies between the “old” and “new” aerospace industries?Tune in for a fascinating chat about the industrial processes and infrastructure that make today’s aerospace industry possible!