Why Airbus’s Plans for a Green Jet Remain Grounded

Summary

WSJ Tech News Briefing: Episode Summary Title: Why Airbus’s Plans for a Green Jet Remain Grounded
Release Date: April 23, 2025
Host: Katie Dayton, The Wall Street Journal

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1. Introduction

In this episode of WSJ Tech News Briefing, host Katie Dayton delves into two significant topics shaping the tech and aerospace industries: the evolution of office lighting technologies and Airbus's ambitious yet challenged plan to develop a zero-emissions jet. This comprehensive summary captures the key discussions, insights, and conclusions presented in the episode.

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2. Revolutionizing Office Lighting

a. The Problem with Traditional Fluorescent Lighting

Katie Dayton opens the discussion by addressing the ubiquitous issue of harsh, unflattering fluorescent strip lights that commonly plague office environments. She highlights the negative impact these lights have on both aesthetics and employee well-being.

“Anyone who's worked in an office knows about the perils of harsh, unflattering fluorescent strip lights.”
— Katie Dayton [00:15]

b. Introduction of High-Tech Adaptive Lighting Solutions

The conversation shifts to the innovative programmable lighting solutions being developed to replace traditional fluorescent lights. These new systems are designed to adjust to employees' circadian rhythms and mimic natural outdoor lighting, even in windowless spaces.

“Design firms have developed new programmable lights that can do things like adjust to match employees circadian rhythms and mimic natural outdoor lighting even in a totally windowless space.”
— Katie Dayton [01:21]

c. Enhancing Mental Health and Productivity

Ray Smith, WSJ's careers and workplace reporter, provides a vivid description of these adaptive lighting systems. He emphasizes their dual purpose: improving visual comfort and supporting mental health by aligning lighting conditions with natural biological rhythms.

“It can feel draining or wearying and cold. ... aiming to boost your mental health in some ways, or at least sync with your body clock.”
— Unnamed Reporter [02:13]

The report includes insights from Interseen, a company specializing in such technologies, noting the "Virtual Sun" and "Circadian Sky" products that create the illusion of natural sunlight indoors.

“It's called Virtual sun and Circadian Sky. ... It's these panels that mimic what it looks like outside.”
— Unnamed Reporter [03:10]

d. Economic Incentives for Companies

The discussion also touches on the economic motivations behind investing in advanced lighting solutions. Companies aim to create more appealing office environments to encourage employees to return to the workplace, thereby maximizing the use of their real estate investments.

“The goal is to have them want to spend more time there, even if they're not mandated to be in the office five days a week.”
— Unnamed Reporter [04:17]

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3. Airbus's Green Jet Ambitions Hit Roadblocks

a. Initial Vision and Commitment

Ben Katz, WSJ's aviation and aerospace reporter, explores Airbus's bold initiative announced in 2020 to develop a hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions jet. This project was intended to position Airbus as a leader in sustainable aviation and provide a competitive edge over rivals like Boeing.

“In 2020, Airbus said it was going to figure out how to build a zero emissions aircraft powered by Hydrogen within 15 years.”
— Ben Katz [05:15]

b. Technological and Industry Challenges

The project has faced significant hurdles, leading to budget cuts and timeline delays. The primary challenges include:

• Hydrogen Storage: Hydrogen requires cryogenic conditions for storage, necessitating bulky and heavy fuel cells that impact aircraft performance and passenger capacity.

  “Hydrogen has to be stored at immensely cold temperatures ... it adds weight and additional equipment onto an aircraft.”
  — Ben Katz [07:22]

• Industry Buy-In: The aviation industry's entrenched reliance on jet fuel infrastructure makes the shift to hydrogen complicated and slow.

  “Hydrogen isn't the easiest fuel. The aviation industry ... is completely set up for jet fuel.”
  — Ben Katz [07:22]

c. Current Status and Future Outlook

After five years and a significant investment of nearly $2 billion, Airbus has delayed the green jet project by up to a decade, now targeting 2045 instead of the original 2035 timeline. The broader ecosystem supporting hydrogen aviation is also behind schedule, contributing to the postponements.

“They were starting to realize that their dreams ... making this 2035 ambition just no longer feasible.”
— Ben Katz [08:46]

Despite these setbacks, Airbus remains committed to the concept, asserting that the substantial investment to date has validated hydrogen's feasibility. However, the company acknowledges the need to redesign the aircraft to achieve commercial viability.

“Airbus is really insisting that the last five years, over $1.5 billion spent ... there is a reasonable route and a feasible route to building the aircraft.”
— Ben Katz [09:29]

d. Broader Industry Implications

Katz contextualizes Airbus's challenges within a broader industry trend where sustainable engineering efforts face delays and reduced investor enthusiasm. Factors such as geopolitical tensions, market pressures, and shifting priorities have contributed to a slowdown in progress towards green technologies.

“It's a combination of two things. ... some of the focus on ESG funding and financing has kind of slipped away.”
— Ben Katz [10:12]

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4. Conclusion

The episode underscores the complexities and challenges inherent in transitioning to sustainable technologies, whether in office environments or the aviation industry. While advancements in adaptive lighting promise enhanced employee well-being and productivity, Airbus's stalled green jet project highlights the formidable obstacles in achieving large-scale, zero-emission aviation. These discussions reflect a broader narrative of innovation tempered by practical constraints and shifting economic landscapes.

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Produced by Julie Chang with Deputy Editor Chris Sinsley. For more updates, stay tuned to WSJ Tech News Briefing.

Transcript

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[Katie Dayton]

TMB listeners, Our recent series Chatbot Confidential dug into some of the privacy risks that come with using chatbots powered by generative AI. What questions do you have about bots like ChatGPT or Claude and your privacy, like what kind of data they collect or how long companies hold onto it? Record a voice memo and send it to tmbsj.com or leave us a voicemail at 212-416-2236. That's 212-416-2236. We might answer your question in an upcoming episode. Now onto the show. Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Wednesday. April Katie I'm Katie Dayton for the Wall Street Journal. Anyone who's worked in an office knows about the perils of harsh, unflattering fluorescent strip lights. But what if it didn't have to be that way? Today we explore some high tech adaptive alternatives that are making their way into office buildings for a cost. And we'll be delving into Airbus mission.

[Ray Smith]

To build a zero emissions jet which.

[Katie Dayton]

After five years and nearly $2 billion is still years away from taking off. But first, some good news. Those unforgiving fluorescent lights found in offices everywhere, well, they may soon be on their way out. Design firms have developed new programmable lights that can do things like adjust to match employees circadian rhythms and mimic natural outdoor lighting even in a totally windowless space. WSJ careers and workplace reporter Ray Smith has the story. So Ray, I'm looking up at the.

[Ray Smith]

Lighting in our office right now and.

[Katie Dayton]

It doesn't look great. You might say it's a little bit.

[Ray Smith]

Old fashioned, but what else is wrong with being under strip lighting all day every day?

[Unnamed Reporter]

From your reporting, on a superficial level, this kind of lighting is unflattering. So sometimes if you catch yourself in the mirror, you're like, do I really look like that? That's a complaint. I hear a lot about fluorescent lighting in offices, but other than that, it can really have an effect on your mental health. It can feel draining or wearying and cold. And so part of the overhaul, if you will, or makeover of office lighting is not just aimed at making you look better and being more flattering, but also aiming to boost your mental health in some ways, or at least sync with your body clock in terms of the time that you Wake and Rise.

[Ray Smith]

Your story has some great imagery in there.

[Katie Dayton]

And the one that blew my mind.

[Ray Smith]

Was this fake sunlight that some companies and offices were installing to give those sort of central offices without any access to natural sunlight the appearance of that. Is there any way you can describe.

[Katie Dayton]

For us what that looks like?

[Ray Smith]

And were you surprised by how well it looks?

[Unnamed Reporter]

Yes, I was surprised. Just hearing it described to me and then seeing it are two different things. And it is borderline eerie because. Because it's just. It's literally a fake sky and a fake sun that looks like the real thing. It's these panels that mimic what it looks like outside. And so it's called Virtual sun and Circadian Sky. And these are products made by a company called Interseen. It's no surprise perhaps that the CEO there is a former video games maker and this sort of mirrors like virtual reality in a way. But that's the goal. The goal is in buildings where there is little to no natural light. Or in Manhattan, for instance, where the sun is blocked by taller buildings next door. These are designed for places that have really low access to natural light.

[Ray Smith]

Why would companies want to invest in office environments right now? Especially when everybody's kind of looking down the line at their budgets and maybe feeling the squeeze slightly.

[Unnamed Reporter]

It's really about making workers want to come back to the office. These landlords and these companies have a lot of real estate on their hands and they're paying up for it and they don't want workers to feel like they come in and they hate it there and they want to spend less time there. The goal is to have them want to spend more time there, even if they're not mandated to be in the office five days a week.

[Katie Dayton]

That was our reporter, Ray Smith. Coming up, why Airbus is hitting the brakes on its ambitions to build an emissions free jet. That's after the break.

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[Katie Dayton]

Discover [e-mail] In 2020, Airbus said it was going to figure out how to build a zero emissions aircraft powered by Hydrogen within 15 years. The company said the plane would put it front and center in the aerospace industry's historic transition away from jet fuel. But Airbus stumbled on some sizable roadblocks and five years on the company's cutting the project budget by a quarter and delaying its timeline by as Much as a decade. Our aviation and aerospace reporter, Ben Katz has been digging into this. So, Ben, we're talking about Airbus, a company that's made a lot of money over the last 50 or so years building planes that run on jet fuel. When and why did the company begin to look at a greener type of energy?

[Ben Katz]

So the conversation around green flying, or in particular hydrogen powered aircraft, started really in 2019 when Airbus, current CEO, took over. But even before then, Airbus was exploring, maybe not in as committed a way, but they were exploring things like electric flight and using electricity to power aircraft. Then came 2020, and it really was this turning point for the company where they decided, you know what, sustainability is top of our agenda. We're going to really double down on bringing what really would have been this remarkable kind of leap in aviation technology, something we haven't really seen since the likes of the jet engine. And that was the pitch to bring a proper airliner powered by hydrogen fuel that would be close at least to a zero emission aircraft. And Airbus really saw kind of an opportunity here, not just to appease governments and shareholders who were really shifting to ESG focused funds, but also a competitive advantage. If Airbus could bring a new type of aircraft that was so much greener than anything currently on the market, that would propel it into really the first place position in their global battle with Boeing.

[Ray Smith]

What were some of the biggest challenges that they were anticipating?

[Katie Dayton]

And what were some of the challenges.

[Ray Smith]

That Airbus did in fact run into?

[Ben Katz]

It's difficult to overstate how massive a challenge creating a hydrogen powered jet was going to be, even when they announced it. Maybe we can break it down into two threads. The first thread is the technology itself. So for a hydrogen powered aircraft, it hasn't been on this kind of scale. Airbus had envisioned a proper airliner that could carry as many as 200 passengers over about 2,000 nautical miles. So the first challenge was really the technology. Not only the question of how do you convert hydrogen into a fuel that can be used to power an aircraft, but also how do you store hydrogen? Hydrogen has to be stored at immensely cold temperatures. Then you have to have the process of actually converting it into a fuel or a way to power the aircraft. The technology that Airbus ultimately settled on required this cryogenic chamber to store the fuel, but then also these fuel cells that added weight. And whenever you add weight and additional equipment onto an aircraft, it makes it heavier and takes up space that could be used for seats. But also it means that the range and the performance becomes less economical. So you have the Challenge of the technology on one side. On the other side, you have to have the buy in of the wider industry. Hydrogen isn't the easiest fuel. The aviation industry, of course, is completely set up for jet fuel.

[Katie Dayton]

What are some of the massive speed.

[Ray Smith]

Bumps that led Airbus to put the brakes, as you put it, in your story on this green jet?

[Ben Katz]

So what we saw last year is Airbus having this reckoning with the technology and with the supply chain. On the technology front, they were starting to realize that their dreams of building a narrow body aircraft closer to the A320 or the 737 Max, that was proving harder than they expected. Eba says that the broader ecosystem is five to 10 years behind where they thought it would be, making this 2035ambition just no longer feasible. They're talking now about maybe 2045, but there's still a lot of question marks. They're going to have to go back and really redesign this aircraft while investing and developing new technology to even get close to the aircraft they dreamed of when they initially set out.

[Katie Dayton]

Has the company responded to your reporting?

[Ben Katz]

So Airbus is really insisting that the last five years, over $1.5 billion spent. That is far from a waste. They, that they've now proven, at least to themselves, that hydrogen is a feasible technology and that there is a reasonable route and a feasible route to building the aircraft that will make commercial sense. At the same time, they're quite open and they admit that they don't want to be stuck with an aircraft that can't sell, that isn't commercially viable.

[Katie Dayton]

This instance is one in the long.

[Ray Smith]

Line of companies lately that have put.

[Katie Dayton]

The brakes on sustainable engineering efforts. Do you feel like this is part.

[Ray Smith]

Of a wider macro trend for car companies, for instance, pulling back on their ECO efforts? Or is this something a little bit different?

[Ben Katz]

It's a combination of two things. I definitely think it's part of this broader trend. Airbus is in a very different position to where it was in the 2020s, dealing with COVID dealing with the pandemic. They secured a lot of funding and backing from the French government, the German government, the EU to support this project. Since then, there are other kind of bigger things front of mind for the company. Of course, we've got the trade, war and tariffs that are building at the moment. But Abbas also finds itself far ahead of its main rival, Boeing. Boeing entered an entirely new crisis at the beginning of last year, and it's still reeling from that. So some analysts, some people who follow the industry comment their take is the pressure isn't as high as it was five years ago. Some of the focus on ESG funding and financing has kind of slipped away. We've seen a lot of reports and examples of investors losing a bit of their interest in the sustainability investment. And then at the same time, there is a question, did Airbus really just over commit?

[Katie Dayton]

That was WSJ reporter Ben Katz. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang with Deputy Editor Chris Sinsley. I'm Katie Dayton for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.