Towards Electric Aviation in the Kvarken Region

The markets for aircraft, airlines and airports are in a phase of major reconsideration, transition and change. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this process turbulent and even more acute. Even before the pandemic, travellers questioned fossil-based aviation, a sign of the shift in preferences amongconsumers. Aircraft producers and airlines had not reacted fast enough; airlines introduced various CO2 compensation schemes, but customers were not convinced. A shift from international air over to national and intra-continental rail had started. In addition, although the car industry was slow out of its start blocks, this part of the transport industry is now intensifying the development of electric engines, batteries, and other engines based on non-fossil fuel. Lastly, and inspired by this, electricaircraft appear to be entering the scene. In order for this vision to be realised, the industry of aviation has to change. Moreover, technical and design related attributes of electric, compared with fossil,aviation might move the competitive breaking points towards air, in relation to land- and sea-based transportation. One aspect of this is the assumed possibility of electric aviation to add new shortdistance routes to the airline network, especially over sea. The Kvarken strait between Finland andSweden, dividing the Bothnian Sea from the Gulf of Bothnia, is an example. This paper is a first investigation of the possibilities to establish a commercially viable regular commuter airline over the strait. Institutional solutions are proposed, as well as measures to be taken in order to reap the benefits of such a route.FAI