The Allplane Podcast

International Airlines Group (IAG) is one of the world’s largest airline groups, with British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and LEVEL in its ranks. And like other leading industry players in such a technology-driven industry, IAG wants to have first row in the innovation arena.This is the reason it created IAGi, where “i” stands for “Innovation”, a division which has the mission to keep the airline group ahead of the game when it comes to technology. It does so by deploying two different approaches: running an accelerator for startups aiming to make a splash in the travel and aviation industries, and investing directly through a £200 million (€235/$265M) venture capital fund.Our guest in today’s episode is, precisely, the man running these programmes. Nacho Tovar, Group Innovation Director at IAG, is an aerospace engineer turned venture capitalist. Nacho will tell us all about how the different tracks available to startups and which criteria IAGi uses to invest in certain startups. We will also chat with Nacho about the shifting tech priorities in the airline world and about the different successes that IAGi has been collecting among the more than 120 startups that have passed through its acceleration or investment programmes in the last decade.If you are into aviation and innovation, you can’t miss this episode, since it will provide you some truly direct insights about how a major airline group views innovation and about the options that aspiring entrepreneurs can leverage to work directly with the five carriers of IAG and perhaps even get financial backing from the group.So, tune in for a fascinating conversation about airlines, innovation and investment with Nacho Tovar, head of IAGi!

In the debate about how to aviation’s contribution to global warming there is a factor that is getting an increasing amount of attention: contrails.These happen when water vapour and particles from the aircraft’s jet exhaust form little crystals upon entering in contact with the very cold air that prevails at high altitudes. Depending on the circumstances of the time and place, those little crystals can then have one of two opposite effects.They can either the help cool the surface of the planet by reflecting sunlight outwards, or, more often than not, they contribute to the warming by acting as a heat trap that prevents infrared radiation from dissipating.So, if the aviation industry wants to up its commitment to preventing global warming, what can it do to prevent contrail formation?Our guest in this episode of the podcast is Maxime Meijers, founder and CEO of Estuaire, a French startup which is using technology to help airlines manage the contrail challenge.In fact, Estuaire’s technology has the potential to help airlines optimize their flight plans for a whole set of variables, since it uses artificial intelligence and data models to find the optimal flight path. However, in this conversation we focused on contrail avoidance, since this has been so far Estuaire’s very distinctive value proposition.With Maxime we talk about how this technology works, how is it implemented on a practical level and what is the business model that led Estuaire on the path of growth, with a number of prominent carriers, such as Vueling and Air France, using it for real.Tune in for a fascinating conversation about the science and business of contrail prevention!

Marie Owens Thomsen, Chief Economist and SVP Sustainability at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has emerged as one of the most outspoken voices in the aviation decarbonization debate. Is the European Emissions Trading System (ETS) fit for purpose? Are the EU's current sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandates fit for purpose? Are airlines carrying a fair share of the decarbonization cost burden? These are some of the questions Marie addresses regularly at industry conferences, and that we discuss in depth in today's episode. As a preview: while agreeing with the Net Zero 2050 goal, Marie - and IATA for that matter - believes the current regulatory framework in Europe is badly designed and fails to account for the dynamics of both the aviation and energy industries. True, IATA is not an impartial actor in this discussion, as it obviously represents the interests of its member airlines. But as the main target of these regulations, airlines are certainly entitled to have their voice heard, if only because, with an average profit margin that has never exceeded the low single digits, any poorly designed regulation can seriously damage an industry that is, after all, one of the pillars of global economic growth and an and an enabler of trade, tourism, human connection, and all sort of other opportunities.IATA has made its case with figures and studies, yet it's often Marie's sharp commentary that often drives IATA’s point home. It is illustrative that this conversation was, in fact, originally planned to last around 45 minutes, but the topic has so many consequential angles that we ended up talking for considerably longer, discussing what could realistically be done to ensure the airline industry meets its environmental commitments without putting its future in jeopardy. So tune in for a fascinating conversation about sustainability, environmental regulation and what these mean for airlines with IATA's Chief Economist, Marie Owens Thomsen!

The path towards electric aviation is not an easy one. On this podcast we have talked on previous occasions about some of the challenges it faces, from getting batteries with enough energy density to setting up a supply chain from scratch.One area we have so far - until now, at least! - paid little attention to is that of ground infrastructure.Our guest for this episode, Dr. Stefan Breunig, is the co-founder and managing director of Albatross, a German company that is working precisely in this space.The electric aviation revolution will need to get supplied by a reliable stream of green electricity, but it also represents an opportunity for airports and other players in the aviation ecosystem to develop new lines of business which stretch well beyond aviation.Can airports become green electricity hubs? What are the challenges the industry faces on this front, in Germany and elsewhere?Tune in for a fascinating conversation with one of Europe’s top electric aviation experts!

eVTOL developers promise thousands of aircraft by the start of next decade, but is this realistic?I am not even talking about the long and costly certification processes, let’s assume, for the sake of simplicity, that this is sorted. What about the capacity of aerospace supply chains, already strained trying to cope with the demand from traditional aircraft makers, to serve this new growth market?Are the current processes and technologies flexible enough to respond to this market demand?We are going to talk about all this with this episode’s guest, Stefan Schamberger, an aerospace supply chain expert who knows the world of aerostructures manufacturing inside out.In this industry analysis writings, Stefan raises also an interesting point: what if the ultimate value delivered by the whole advanced air mobility (AAM) revolution was to facilitate the advent of the new generation mid-sized airliner which both Boeing and Airbus are aiming to launch some time in the middle of the next decade?How transfereable are skills and technologies between the “old” and “new” aerospace industries?Tune in for a fascinating chat about the industrial processes and infrastructure that make today’s aerospace industry possible!

Blockchain technology has been making headlines for quite a few years, so perhaps may come as a surprise to many of you that its use in fields such as aerospace finance has been rather limited to date.But this may soon change if a Florida-based company, Forum Markets (previously known as ETHZilla) gets its way.On this episode of the podcast, two of Forum Markets’ VPs, John Kristoff and Max Van der Griend, explain they have used Ethereum-based tokens to securitize airliner engine leases for a major US carrier, opening up this segment of the aviation finance market to retail (accredited) investors.If we are to judge by the size other asset-backed security markets have grown to, the potential is enormous!Following the first successful deal in this space, which was closed in early 2026, John and Max have certainly plans to develop this concept further, perhaps expanding into adjacent market niches, such as aircraft leases.Blockchain and aerospace leasing are two highly technical disciplines, so it is great to be able to learn about both of them directly from those that are innovating by linking them up to create new products and solutions.So, tune in to find out how all this works!And, before going into today’s episode, please, remember this is not financial advice and everything we discuss here on this podcast is for informational purposes only!

The future of electric aviation depends on progress being made in the battery technology front.This is a topic we like to cover with certain regularity here on this podcast, since things are moving forward…but, are they moving fast enough?No one better to ask this question to than those that are working every day at the cutting edge of this industry.Gerard Torres is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Bold, a young battery development firm which is working with some of the industry’s biggest names in aerospace, defense and automotive.This conversation with Gerard provides some insights into the current state of the aerospace battery industry and which are the most promising chemistries that some of the leading players are paying attention to.Also, what sort of challenges remain? How does the time-frame for further aerospace battery development looks like?We are going to try to answer to all these questions in our conversation with Gerard and we are also going to talk about the story of Bold and how it grew out of the founder’s apartment into a global player which is currently building its presence in the United States and other parts of the world.So, tune in to listen about the latest in the aerospace battery scene!

The popularity of flight tracking apps has transcended the boundaries of the aviation community and truly become mainstream.I guess most of our readers and listeners are familiar with the market leader in this space, but what if I told you the competitive landscaspe in this space is far from static?Alex Lungu is the CEO of Wingbits, a ventur capital-backed Swedish startup that is aiming to disrupt the flight tracking industry by introducing a new model to build a flight tracking community which shares differently the value it creates.It is precisely the way incentives are built into its system that has allowed Wingbits to grow fast in a matter of just over a couple of years, from a few dozen tracking stations when it launched in 2023 to some 6,000 worldwide, as we recorded this conversation.In this episode of the podcast, Alex will explain what Wingbits is doing differently from its competitors and what factors have allowed this company to grow that fast.We also discussed, more generally, how flight tracking works and how the huge amounts of data generated by the flight tracking community hold immense value that can be put to good use if the right tools are available.And this is, precisely, what Wingbits has set to do, because Alex describes Wingbits as, essentially, a data business at its core.So, tune in for a deep dive into the flight tracking business with our guest today, Alex Lungu, CEO of Wingbits!

Every now and then is good to stop for a second, and take some time to think and assess what’s going on around you.If you are following the advanced air mobility industry on a day to day basis it is easy to get carried away by a deluge of triumphalist announcements and press releases.But what is real and what is mere hype?Adrian Norris is someone that not only knows the aviation industry inside out after decades of experience in different capacities, but he’s also been an aircraft entrepreneur prior to becoming a consultant. So, he knows a thing or two about the challenges of developing and marketing a new aircraft type from scratch!I’ve been following Adrian’s writings on Linkedin for quite some time. In the, he shares his critical analysis, based on objective, known facts, of some of the most prominent aviation projects going on in the world right now.Does hydrogen aviation have a future? What are the prospects for electric aircraft developers? Who’s going to win the eVTOL race, if anyone?These are just some of the topics we discuss with Adrian in today’s episode. What’s more, rather than remain in the domain of the abstract and general, we are going to name specific companies and try to assess their chances of success.So, buckle up for a ride through the volatile world of advanced air mobility. We'll try to separate hype from reality in an industry in which high hopes and promising tech collide with challenging human and physical laws, challenging economics and shifting investor sentiment!

What if the lowest-hanging fruit in aviation decarbonization was not in the air, but waiting right in front of us, on the ground?This is what David Valaer, founder and CEO of Green Taxi Aerospace thinks. A pilot since the age of 16, David has spent his whole life surrounded by aircraft, either spending summers a bush pilot in Alaska, flying F-16 fighter jets for the US Air Force or, later on, scaling up and selling a successful helicopter tech company.A few years ago, David became intrigued by the possibilities that a new generation of electric motors offered to solve one of the issues of everyday commercial aircraft operations: the amount of fuel wasted while taxiing inefficiently through airports.Did you know that between 5 and 20% of fuel is consumed by airliners while they are on the ground? This happens because most of the time aircraft use their engines to move while on the tarmac, an incredibly wasteful process which in addition to producing unnecessary carbon emissions, also strains aircraft brakes and exposes the engines to foreign object damage.What if the taxiing could be done with electric motors instead? Green Taxi is working on a system that, David promises, will be able to cut down drastically the amount of fuel aircraft consumer while taxiing. Airlines could be saving in the region of $250-300k per aircraft per year if this technology is finally implemented, not to speak of the related drop in emissions and wear and tear of equipment.I was also intrigued by this story, so after speaking with David a few times at industry conferences in the last few months, I thought it was best if he could come onto the podcast to share all the details about this promising new technology that his company is developing.So, tune in for an interesting chat about what Green Taxi can do for the environment and for the bottom line of airlines! (and also for some fascinating details about David’s earlier adventures in aviation!)