Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the aviation sector is (a) innovative and (b) sustainable.

The Government’s vision is for the UK to be a world leader in innovative aviation technology that has a transformative effect on the movement of people and goods. The Government is providing £125m, matched by £175m from industry, of support for Innovate UK’s Future Flight Challenge. The Challenge seeks to support the demonstration in the UK of Unmanned, Advanced Air Mobility and sub-regional electric and hydrogen air services.

The Government is also supporting a variety of innovative technology, fuel and market-based measures to address aviation emissions and ensure that the sector is sustainable and achieves net zero by 2050.

In July 2021, we published the Jet Zero Consultation which sets out our vision for the aviation sector to reach net zero by 2050, focussing on the rapid development of technologies in a way that maintains the benefits of air travel and maximises the opportunities that decarbonisation can bring for the UK. We are carefully considering consultation responses, alongside wider government policy and the very latest technological developments in the development of the final Jet Zero Strategy, which we are aiming to publish later this year.

Over the next three years, we are providing £685m funding to the Aerospace Technology Institute Programme to support the development of new and zero-carbon emission aircraft technology, and £180m funding to accelerate the commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants and fuel testing in the UK.