FVA Vision
Context: a collaborative global challenge
Aviation’s growing environmental impact demands fundamental, system-wide change globally. The industry, guided by the commitments of IATA, ATAG, and ICAO, is focused on achieving 'net-zero carbon emissions by 2050’, alongside efforts to mitigate non-CO2 emissions, reduce noise, and manage waste responsibly. The Netherlands, through its commitment in Dutch policy and Luchtvaart in Transitie (LiT), is dedicated to contributing substantially to these worldwide solutions. Achieving these goals requires pooling expertise and resources across borders.
Flying Vision Accelerator envisions to empower Dutch and international contribution
The Flying Vision Accelerator (FVA) initiative drives this transition by connecting national strengths with global partners to address the challenge effectively. The vision of Flying Vision Accelerator is to be a catalyst for Dutch and international action in achieving ‘net-zero carbon emissions in aviation by 2050 while also addresses non-CO2 emissions, noise reduction, and responsible waste management with an ambition towards climate neutral aviation. FVA achieves this by providing a strategic roadmap and facilitating the collaborative action needed to effectively integrate the strengths of the Dutch ecosystem with those of key global partners.
The role of Flying Vision Accelerator
Because of the broad coalition within FVA, from fundamental research to applied research, R&D in OEMs, airlines and airport, including the passenger as a key stakeholder, FVA creates a unique strategic transition roadmap, which identifies the right topics and key systemic challenges. This roadmap provides critical insight for the Dutch and international ecosystem, guiding where its strengths must be focused. Furthermore, this roadmap serves as a framework for dialogue, alignment and action with international partners, ensuring collaborative efforts address shared priorities in pursuit of the net-zero 2050 ambition.
FVA accelerates the process by acting as a catalyst for the Dutch ecosystem and its partners. We facilitate a growing, multidisciplinary community by actively seeking and engaging with partners to share knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions. FVA enables stakeholders to collaboratively put Dutch strengths and global expertise to work for the solution, positioning the Netherlands as a critical hub in the international effort for sustainable aviation.
The need for more sustainable aviation
The road towards a more sustainable aviation is a multifaceted challenge that extends far beyond reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. While CO₂ is a central concern, the Dutch objective cannot be achieved without addressing the broader environmental footprint of flight. This includes non-CO₂ climate effects, local air quality, noise pollution, and integrating air travel into a future multi-modal network to minimise its overall footprint.
Aircraft engines emit a variety of pollutants, more than just CO₂, including nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), water vapor, unburned hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and other byproducts. These contribute to ozone formation and can alter atmospheric chemistry, amplifying aviation’s climate impact. Additionally, contrails - the condensation trails left behind by aircraft - can evolve into cirrus clouds that trap heat in the atmosphere. These potentially have a warming effect comparable to or greater than CO₂ alone. Locally, noise pollution and particulate emissions continue to impact communities near airports, affecting public health and quality of life.
Ongoing efforts for more sustainable aviation
The Dutch national target of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 is enshrined in the Dutch Climate Act (Klimaatwet). This act mandates that, compared to 1990 levels, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 55% by 2030, and by 90% by 2040. According to the Dutch target, all greenhouse gases the Netherlands still emitted in 2050, will be compensated with carbon removal.
The aviation industry has made significant progress in improving fuel efficiency for decades, approximately 1.5–2% annually. This is due to better engines, aerodynamics, and operations.
However, these gains are consistently outpaced by the 4-5% annual growth in global air traffic causing total emissions to rise despite better per-passenger efficiency.
Aviation is not just about the aircraft. It’s a complex web of organisations, including aircraft & engine manufacturers, airlines, air traffic management, airports, fuel providers, regulators, and passengers. Because all these groups are important stakeholders, achieving the Dutch climate objectives requires coordinated change across the entire global system. Technology is essential, but it can’t solve the problem alone. Systemic changes in policy, infrastructure, and behaviour are equally critical to decarbonising this 'system of systems'.
Novel energy carriers - such as hydrogen, alternative aviation fuels (SAF), and battery-electric propulsion - offer promising pathways. However, their scalability depends on a much broader energy transition. Producing renewable hydrogen or SAF requires vast amounts of renewable energy and a restructured energy infrastructure. Without a global shift to low-carbon energy systems, these aviation-specific solutions will remain limited in availability and high in cost.
The European Union is at the forefront of regulating and enabling more decarbonisation in aviation. Key policies include:
Investments in the Clean Aviation partnership, SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) and nationally in the National Growth Fund (NGF) “Luchtvaart in Transitie” aim to advance reduced-emission technologies and improve airspace efficiency.
Flying Vision Accelerator’s point-of-view
As stated before, more sustainable aviation is a multifaceted challenge that requires technological innovation, systemic change, and international coordination. This is why FVA's mission is not to demonstrate technology, but to demonstrate the needed transition process of the entire ecosystem in a roadmap, including the traveler’s perspective. This transition is a complex process where simultaneous developments from within and beyond the aviation ‘system of systems’ are required. It is important to identify transition pivot points and their in- and outputs to allow out of the box thinking. This starts with building the foundation and establishing prerequisites, progressing by demonstrating viability at scale, and ultimately leading to full deployment and universal integration.
To achieve a fully decarbonised aviation sector, it must address all environmental impacts while transforming the energy systems that will power the aircraft of the future. This is why FVA convenes experts from the broadest aviation perspective: from fundamental research to applied research, the aircraft industry, airlines, MRO providers, airport operators, ground service providers, travel agents, passenger CX (Customer Experience) experts, policy makers, and many more. This collaboration is crucial to combine knowledge, produce the policy-forming roadmap, and perform the meta-research necessary.
Guided by the industry’s ambitious net-zero objectives for aviation by 2050, the Flying Vision Accelerator (FVA) utilises its roadmap and facilitating role to identify and prioritise the critical areas that the ecosystem must address and implement to achieve the goals, such as: