Airbus has disclosed a multimillion-dollar investment in Carbon Engineering, a Canada-based direct air carbon capture (DACC) specialist. The investment amounts to "a double-digit million CAD [Canadian dollar] figure". The investment will help to fund Carbon Engineering's research and development of DACC technologies at its facility in Squamish, British Columbia. The technology sucks carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere using high-powered fans. The CO2 can then be either permanently stored in geologic reservoirs or used to produce power-to-liquid sustainable aviation fuels, says Airbus. Removing CO2 from the atmosphere in this way "would allow the aviation sector to extract the equivalent amount of emissions from its operations directly from the air, thereby counterbalancing residual emissions", the European airframer asserts. The investment represents a "key part" of Airbus's global climate strategy, it adds, alongside several other technological pathways. "We are proud to be investing in Carbon Engineering, reaffirming our commitment to the use of direct air carbon capture as a two-fold solution for the decarbonisation of the aviation industry," states Karine Guenan, vice-president of Airbus's "ZEROe Ecosystem". Carbon Engineering chief executive Daniel Friedmann adds that the company's DACC technology "provides a scalable, affordable solution to decarbonise aviation".

Wizz Air has joined the Alliance for Zero-Emission Aviation (AZEA), a voluntary initiative launched by the European Commission to pave the way for next-generation sustainable aircraft. Wizz Air joins AZEA alongside a range of public and private aviation stakeholders, united by the shared mission to decarbonise the industry by facilitating the commercialisation of hydrogen and electric aircraft, the central European carrier says. To achieve this, AZEA members will work together to identify barriers to advancing zero-emission aircraft, establish recommendations and a roadmap to address them, and promote investment projects. Within AZEA, Wizz Air says it will share information with members on the expected challenges and solutions for achieving zero emission aircraft from an ultra-low-cost carrier perspective. Wizz Air states: "Joining AZEA is further demonstration of Wizz Air's continued commitment to sustainability and supports its target to reduce carbon emissions intensity per passenger kilometre by 25% by 2030."

Finnair is consulting on a wave of cabin-crew job cuts as it seeks to subcontract roles on some long-haul services. The plan involves transferring cabin crewing to "partners" for services to Thailand and the USA, resulting in the loss of 450 jobs within Finnair's in-flight services, out of a total of 1,750 across its network, the Oneworld member indicates in a statement. Subcontractors already provide cabin services for the airline's operations to Singapore, Hong Kong and India as well as the Qatari capital Doha from Stockholm and Copenhagen. Finnair has in recent months made a number of changes to its practices in a bid to decrease unit costs. This has included discussions of altered employment terms across all staff. For crews, it has proposed changes to crew utilisation efficiency, to layover hotel rules and to additional pay per hour rules for long flights. "A negotiation result was reached with some employee groups, but unfortunately, a solution was not found with the cabin crew in Finland," says the airline. "In this situation, Finnair must seek savings through alternative measures." Negotiations will start on 23 November and are set to last at least six weeks. Any resulting changes would be implemented by the end of next year. "The plan is a part of the efforts to restore Finnair's profitability by reducing unit costs and strengthening unit revenues," it adds. "Finnair made considerable losses during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the closure of Russian airspace significantly impacts Finnair's ability to generate profit."