Following his keynote address at last month’s FTE Global 2022 event, FTE caught up with Connect Airlines’ CEO John Thomas to discuss the carrier’s ambition to be the first zero emission airline in the US by 2025. Using the De Havilland Q400 turboprop aircraft, Connect will use significantly less fuel translating into 35% lower CO2 emissions versus regional jets and 50% lower CO2 emissions versus narrow-body jets. In collaboration with Universal Hydrogen, the airline is also retrofitting 75 ATR 72-600s with hydrogen electric conversion kits with deliveries starting in 2025. Thomas shares: “We want to change the perception of flying on a turboprop. Turboprops have a bad rep in the US market, but we are going to make it so much better by introducing a much better customer experience in terms of comfort, convenience and flying into smaller airports that can’t be served by regional jets.”
