Air NZ Sustainability Chief on adjusting targets, keeping green lead

Air New Zealand takes pride in being one of the world’s most proactive airlines when it comes to sustainability. 

It was one of the pioneering carriers to commit to ambitious net zero targets and later demonstrated remarkable transparency by publicly acknowledging the need to recalibrate its approach. 

Even if it decided to withdraw from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in July 2024, becoming the first major airline to reassess its 2030 climate goals, Air New Zealand remains committed to lead in sustainability. 

AeroTime spoke with Kiri Hannifin, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer at Air New Zealand, during the 81st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which took place in Delhi, India, on June 1-3, 2025, and asked her about the carrier’s ongoing sustainability projects. 

Kiri Hannifin, Chief Sustainability Officer, Air New Zealand“We’re the national flag carrier of a country that prides itself on being green. So much of our economy relies on nature: tourism, agriculture…so, if you think about the impact of aviation on the environment, for us it’s an existential threat and we know we need to do everything we can to stop pollution.” explained Hannafin, adding that Air New Zealand is committed to the IATA and ICAO 2050 net zero goals. 

Hannafin referred to the airline’s recent recalibration of its emissions goals. The (non) availability of SAF played, perhaps not surprisingly, a key role in this decision: 

“We were one of the first airlines, maybe number two, to have a science-based target, but, unfortunately, we had to retract it last year, because the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) we needed was just beyond our reach. But earlier this year, in March, we announced a new approach to emissions, and we have put guidance out to our customers and to the market that by 2030 we expect to have a net emissions reduction of between 20 and 25% compared to 2019.” 

Hannifin quantified what this reduction represents: 

“We are about 4 million tons of carbon a year, and that should get us down to 3 million tons of carbon, but with aviation growth in between and into the later part of the decade. At the moment, we don’t have much growth because we’ve got engine issues.”  

Remarkably, and despite its green credentials, New Zealand doesn’t have any country-specific fuel mandates like those in place in the EU, UK and other countries, so Air New Zealand is acting on its own initiative. 

“We are very focused on getting access to SAF.” she explained, adding that, since there is no SAF production in New Zealand, the airline has to source it either in Singapore or in California, where its Dreamliners can uplift a SAF blend when refueling for their trip back home. 

This supply situation may change in the future, as Air New Zealand has partnered with US-based SAF producer LanzaJet in order to evaluate the feasibility of producing SAF in New Zealand using forestry waste as feedstock. 

Mission Next Gen Aircraft 

But perhaps the project that has given Air New Zealand most international notoriety in the field of sustainability is its electric aircraft testing project, called “Mission Next Gen Aircraft”. 

Launched in 2022, this program called for proposals to evaluate an electric or hybrid-electric aircraft that in the longer term could potentially replace the de Havilland Q300 turboprops it currently uses on many domestic routes. 

Hannifin enumerated the reasons Air New Zealand is keen to see electric and hybrid-electric aviation taking off, even if it will be available only on relatively small aircraft at first: 

“We are very lucky that novel propulsion aircraft is an option for us. In the first place, because 60% of our regional flying in New Zealand is under 350 kilometers, these are short distances that we fly with turboprops. And, secondly, we have a lot of renewable energy. So, those two things combined mean that we could be using electric aircraft.”  

Hannifin continued with a mention of New Zealand’s air mobility requirements, which are, in great part, dictated by geography. 

“We have the land size of Japan, but a population of only 5 million. So quite a big landmass, bigger than England, but with a very, very small population. Many of our domestic services are small gauge. Add to this the fact that we have two islands and, also, that we don’t have a train network to speak of. So, we are very interested in different types of aircraft, be them electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered.”  

This initiative attracted the interest of major aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus, ATR and Embraer, as well as some of the most prominent names of the nascent clean aviation ecosystem, such as Heart Aerospace, VoltAero and BETA Technologies 

“We went to the global market, and said, “These are our requirements. Here’s what we’re looking for. And we had many responses, more than 20 of them. We then narrowed that down to four, which we still work with.” explained Hannifin. 

In a stark reminder of the challenges of building a low-emission aircraft, two of the companies that were part of “Mission Next Gen Aircraft” in its beginning, Universal Hydrogen and Eviation, have since ceased operations, while a third one, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, is facing an uncertain future after facing financial difficulties. 

“The market for novel propulsion has shrunk, which is very disappointing, and Airbus has unfortunately pushed out the time frame for its hydrogen aircraft.” lamented Hannifin before expressing her hopes for the success of company that has finally been selected for the flight testing phase of the program. 

“We have one lead partner, which is BETA Technologies. They are doing well. It’s a fantastic company. They are coming to New Zealand in a couple of months, and we’ll do a technical demonstration with their aircraft in September this year.” she added. 

Air New Zealand expects these first demonstration flights to help also staff and regulators familiarize with the CX300 ALIA, the aircraft BETA Technologies is pitching for this project. 

After conducting a number of demonstration flights across the United States, Vermont-base BETA Technologies is currently showcasing the CX300 ALIA to overseas prospects.  

Starting in May 2025, one of these hybrid-electric conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) aircraft has been on a tour of Europe which has taken it to Ireland and the United Kingdom. It will next be heading to Norway, where it is expected to undergo flight tests along the North Sea coast for Bristow, an air services operator. 

Although Air New Zealand has announced, on April 2024, that the CX300 ALIA could perform cargo flights for New Zealand Post as early as 2026, Hannifin revealed there have been some changes in this program. 

The first technical demonstration flights of the ALIA won’t carry any payloads. The first cargo flights will have to wait at least until 2027 or 2028 and it is not yet clear if New Zealand Post will still be taking part in the project. 

Interestingly, this delay may allow Air New Zealand to leapfrog to passenger flights, provided that the aircraft is properly certified by then. 

“We’ll, be looking around whether we do a bit of cargo, potentially, by that time, they might have a passenger variant” she said. 

The initial testing was supposed to take place between Wellington (WLG) and Marlborough (BHE), two airports on opposite sides of the strait separating New Zealand’s North and South Islands, but this, Hannifin explained, is far from certain. The location will depend on the final choice of partner now that the participation of New Zealand Post is not guaranteed. 

Hannifin didn’t confirm whether an aircraft like the CX300 would be inducted into Air New Zealand’s fleet if the testing goes well. In this regard, she pointed out that, at the moment, the smallest aircraft in the airline’s fleet is still much larger than the six-seater ALIA. 

“Our smallest plane has 50 seats. It’s the deHavilland Q300, it’s a great aircraft and we are going to keep them going through the 2030s. We’ll probably do some modernization of the cockpit, etc., but they’ve got some life left,” she noted. However, she left the door half open, particularly in the event that the industry is able to scale up these first clean aircraft concepts, like the ALIA, and produce larger models. 

“Once you get into, let’s say, a 15 or 20-seater, then we don’t know…at some point soon, someone will make an aircraft that has a payload that would suit New Zealand. And I really hope that it will be part of our future. 

A holistic approach to sustainability 

“We are looking at some [carbon] removals. We haven’t bought any, but we are just watching the market actively. We’d really like to have carbon removals happen in New Zealand, with our nature. It would be beautiful to do something in our own country to support carbon removals, but with adjacent biodiversity and community benefits as well. So that’s something we’re working on.” explained Hannifin, before elaborating further about other environmental projects Air New Zealand supports which are not directly linked to carbon emissions. 

“We do a lot of things: we invest in nature in New Zealand. We support the government work around protecting biodiversity New Zealand.”  

Air New Zealand is even taking action to control invasive species.  

“We fund a lot of predator trapping and predator fencing, because it’s a big threat to our wildlife, to our nature, our flora and fauna.” she stated. 

Hannifin shared some details of, yet, another interesting sustainable project Air New Zealand is involved in.  

“We’re very strong on circular economy and waste reduction. We’ve just retrofitted our first 787, and we recycled the content of that plane, or as much of the content as we could. A third party in Singapore, who has broken down the components and recycled the material. So, we are just trying all the time to reduce waste, to reduce our footprint” 

Many of the materials that were on that aircraft have got a new life as furniture, bags or even train tracks. 

“That feels good, when we’re not wasting!” she exclaimed. 

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