Announcing the move, Capital A founder and CEO Tony Fernandes said Hamid’s onboarding will help spearhead growth, including a possible listing of the business in Hong Kong ⁠by mid-2026.

In January 2026, Capital A completed the sale of its short-haul aviation business to AirAsia X, allowing the latter to focus on expanding operations and reducing costs while Capital A looked to grow its businesses in areas including logistics, branding and aircraft maintenance. The move, along with Hamid’s appointment, comes amid both companies facing headwinds caused by the Middle East conflict, which has sent jet fuel prices soaring.

Capital A’s shares are down 27% over the past month, while AirAsia X’s have plunged 41%.

According to Tony Fernandes, Capital A has seen an ‌impact from the Middle East conflict on its businesses, which include aircraft maintenance, freight and logistics, food catering and branding services. However, AirAsia would work to keep its fares low, while desisting from the practice of cancelling flights amid the ongoing conflict. The budget carrier would also provide updates on its operations in the first week of April.

Capital A is also aiming to list its branding unit, AirAsia Next, in the United States by the end of 2026, reviving a plan that was called off two years ago.

Tony Fernandes also stated that the listing plans for Capital A and AirAsia Next were dependent on the group’s exit from PN17 classification, a tag given by Malaysia’s stock exchange to financially distressed companies.

Capital A has been classified as PN17 since 2022, after incurring massive losses due to COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions.

“We just need to submit our audited accounts (to the stock exchange). I don’t want to jump the gun, but that’s the last thing we have (to do),” Tony Fernandes concluded.

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Instead of cutting passenger journeys, the mentioned efficiency measures would be far more effective in ensuring an immediate 11% reduction in carbon footprint by using the most efficient aircraft that airlines already have more strategically on routes they already fly, rather than providing lip service to terms like sustainable fuels or carbon offsets.

The researchers analysed over 27 million commercial flights in 2023, covering 26,000 city pairs and nearly 3.5 billion passengers. The methodology revealed enormous variability in emissions efficiency, with some routes producing nearly 900 grams of CO₂ per kilometre for each paying passenger, almost 30 times higher than the most efficient, at around 30 grams of CO₂ per kilometre. Published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the study claims to be the first to assess the variation in flights’ operational efficiency around the world.

As aircraft become increasingly fuel-efficient, the amount of carbon dioxide per kilometre flown has been decreasing, but the increase in the number of flights has far outpaced this, leading to higher emissions that are contributing to the climate crisis. Aviation experts predict that by 2050, carbon dioxide emissions from aviation could double or even triple. The new analysis also revealed that more polluting flights were common from smaller airports in the United States and Australia, as well as in parts of Africa and the Middle East. In contrast, airports in India, Brazil, and Southeast Asia were dominated by less polluting flights.

Flights out of airports like Atlanta and New York were among the least efficient, nearly 50% worse than those at the most efficient airports, such as Abu Dhabi and Madrid. The UN aviation body, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), is pinning its hopes on an “unambitious and problematic” offsetting scheme, known as CORSIA, to reduce emissions, but has not yet made any airline purchase a carbon credit.

In fact, Khaled Diab, the communications director at Carbon Market Watch, remarked, “No airline has yet been obliged to use a single carbon credit under the UN’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). And when they are, CMW research reveals the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) imposes a carbon price on aviation emissions that is 25 times higher. This clearly demonstrates that cap-and-trade systems are better for the climate and should be expanded.”

Prof Stefan Gössling at Linnaeus University in Sweden, who led the research, said, “We are currently stuck with a global situation where there is no hope that aviation will reduce its emissions.”

According to him, all-economy-seat planes, 95% flight occupancy, and using today’s most efficient aircraft could cut fuel use and therefore emissions by 50%-75%. It would also mean far less sustainable fuel would be needed to make flying nearly emissions-free in the future.

“I always thought air transport was already very efficient, and that is also what airlines like to tell people. But, in reality, it’s very inefficient because of three factors: using old aircraft, transporting people [in premium seats] with lots of space, and often having aircraft that are not fully loaded. In 2023, the average ‘load factor’, seat occupancy, was almost 80%,” Gössling added.

Crunching the details

The study also analysed the efficiency of 26,000 pairs of cities based on the amount of CO₂ emitted per kilometre per passenger, using data from 3.5 billion passengers who flew a total distance of 6.8 trillion km (145 trips to the sun, 577 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to the annual emissions of Germany).

The study found that US flights were 14% more polluting than the global average, China had efficiencies slightly above average, and the UK, the third-largest aviation polluter in the world, had efficiencies slightly below the 84.4g of CO₂ per passenger kilometre average.

The most efficient route was Milan, Italy, to Incheon Airport near Seoul, South Korea (31.6g CO₂/pkm). The least efficient route was in Papua New Guinea, with the second-worst from Ironwood Airport to Minneapolis/St Paul in the US (805g CO₂/pkm).

“While airlines often claim that fuel savings are in their own economic interest, the reality is that many airlines continue to fly with old aircraft, low load factors, or growing shares of premium-class seating,” the researchers noted.

“The most important factor was replacing premium seats with denser economy seating: First- and business-class passengers are responsible for more than three times the emissions of economy passengers, and up to 13 times more in the biggest premium cabins. Other policies that might encourage greater efficiency include softer policies like requiring airlines to disclose an efficiency rating for each route. You wouldn’t want to fly with an airline that is rated F. Market-based policies might include airports charging higher landing fees for more polluting aircraft, which also makes local communities’ air dirtier,” Gössling claimed.

While the efficiency gains that the study identified, such as replacing older, more polluting planes, would bring improvements, they would also confront the reality of an industry operating on low margins. However, Gössling argued that the sector was stuck in a business model that maximised passenger numbers to boost profit and that it could operate fewer, fuller flights with higher ticket prices.

He said that many flights are taken because they are so cheap, commenting, “We know that a lot of air transport demand is induced. If you increase the cost, people will just choose a different type of holiday.”

Facing the reality

The senior vice-president of sustainability at the International Air Transport Association, the trade association for the world’s airlines, Marie Owens Thomsen, told Reuters, “Airlines have a vested interest in reducing fuel burn and maximising load factors, but the order backlog for aircraft exceeds 5,000 planes due to supply-chain failures.”

She further added that real progress in reducing aviation emissions would come from the use of SAF, CORSIA, and the modernisation of air routes.

Aviation accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Still, flying is concentrated among wealthy passengers, with 1% of the world’s population responsible for 50% of aviation emissions, while only 10% of people fly at all in any one year, and 4% fly abroad.

An ICAO spokesperson said its analysis showed that operational improvements could account for 4%-11% of the carbon emission reductions required to achieve net zero, while factors such as cleaner fuel and innovative technologies will do the remainder.

Meanwhile, with the aviation sector racing to decarbonise, how much might the cost of a passenger ticket increase by 2050? Naomi Allen, Head of Research at RAeS (Royal Aeronautical Society), crunched the numbers to find out the reality.

Decarbonising aviation will make the sector more expensive and, therefore, ticket prices will rise, making flights less accessible to passengers. Assuming that 25% of the ticket cost is for fuel, by 2050, the industry will face another dilemma, like fuel cost, including the real value (CAF or SAF), along with the penalties due to non-compliance with the mandate and the cost of GGR (Greenhouse Gas Removal) for any remaining carbon emissions.

On the other hand, the University of Oxford report assumes that fuel (kerosene and SAF) costs and GGR costs are evenly distributed across tickets and are agnostic as to which flights use SAF or not. While the United Kingdom’s SAF mandate does not yet specify requirements for 2050, according to Allen, the industry has assumed that the requirement will be 70% of fuel being SAF, the same as the ReFuelEU mandate requirement.

“The average ERF of the SAF used is assumed to be 70%; this may be an underestimate for PtL SAF by 2050, but it is higher than the ERF typically seen for many other types of SAF at the current time. Assuming Net Zero for the sector in 2050, all net carbon emissions resulting from the fuel outside the mandate and the ERF of the SAF will have to be offset by GGR,” Allen told The Guardian.

The study also ignores inflation between now and 2050, assuming that the price of fossil-fuel-derived kerosene in 2050 will be $700/ton, although the actual price will depend on the pace of decarbonisation in other sectors. The report assumes that the supply of SAF is sufficient to meet demand up to the level of the SAF mandate and that the supply of GGR is unlimited. In reality, SAF and GGR may not be available to the aviation sector in the necessary quantities, as there will be competition for resources between other sectors and scaling constraints.

Greenhouse gas removals by 2050 are expected to be permanent. However, the estimated costs for these removals vary significantly. The World Economic Forum has stated that achieving a Direct Air Capture (DAC) cost of $150 per ton of CO₂ by 2050 is both necessary and feasible. In contrast, the recently published Independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals for the British government predicts that the costs for permanent removals in 2050 will be much higher. For the study, GGR prices of $100/ton and $600/ton are used; a midpoint of $350/ton CO₂ is used to capture the probable range due to alternative GGR methods and processes, and significant uncertainty. A midpoint of $350/ton CO₂ is used for some calculations.

It is anticipated that all decarbonisation will come from SAF and GGR, and that other decarbonisation options, such as electrification and hydrogen, will not have a significant impact on aviation emissions (either due to scalability or technology/infrastructure maturity) by 2050. Costs will be affected differently by other decarbonisation strategies. Moreover, the research found that, provided the price of SAF is about as expected or lower, and the cost of GGR is high, then meeting the SAF mandate will, on average, result in lower ticket prices than if Net Zero is achieved entirely through GGR.

On the other hand, if lower GGR costs are achieved, then meeting the SAF mandate is likely to raise ticket prices by 10%-15%. Note that this assumes that enough SAF will be available to meet the mandate, but it was also calculated that if the SAF mandate is not met, then non-compliance penalties could raise ticket prices by as much as 15% more, depending on the extent of the excess demand. The scenario is plausible, given doubts about the ability to scale up the supply of SAF.

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The official remarked, “The partnership is also active through academic and technical cooperation, as Boeing is a founding partner of Al-Faisal University and has partnerships with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.”

While stating industry and supply chain localisation as key objectives for companies operating in Saudi Arabia, Al-Jomoai added that partnerships with firms like SAMI are boosting the Kingdom’s goal of localising more than 50% of its military spending by 2030. Boeing considers itself a central partner in localisation and technology transfer.

According to Al-Jomoai, Boeing’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, which spans more than 81 years, has been a fruitful one, with the aviation giant delivering more than 170 commercial aircraft in recent years.

Boeing’s existing contracts within Saudi Arabia’s military-industrial set-up include maintenance and technical support for advanced defence systems, most notably F-15 fighter jets, with the Kingdom being the largest operator of the aircraft outside the United States. These contracts also cover Apache attack helicopters and AH-6i aircraft, light helicopter gunships often known as the “Little Bird.”

Al-Jomoai said that although support agreements cover both commercial and defence sectors, defence operations currently dominate in the Kingdom’s aviation discourse, as the Gulf major continues to expand its military spending.

According to Boeing’s website, Boeing Defence, Space & Security’s relationship with the Royal Saudi Air Force began in 1978 when Saudi Arabia selected its first fleet of F-15C/D aircraft, forming the backbone of the Kingdom’s air defence.

The fleet expanded significantly in December 2011 when Saudi Arabia and the United States signed a military sales agreement, the largest in America’s history at the time, covering F-15SA fighter jets, AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, and AH-6 light armed reconnaissance helicopters.

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“Total revenue increased to USD 1,725.2 million in 2025 from USD 1,429.6 million in 2024, or 20.7%, due to higher lease revenues from newly acquired aircraft, including through business combinations, and increased maintenance revenue. Total assets also increased to USD 16,547.7 million in 2025 from USD 13,033.3 million in 2024, as a result of aircraft acquired during the year,” the venture stated.

The Dubai-based company also spent about USD 5 billion on acquisitions in 2025, including the USD 2 billion purchase of rival Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC).

“Around 2025 was another exceptional year for the DAE franchise. We announced and closed the acquisition of NAC. In total, we acquired 280 and sold 111 aircraft. Our fleet of Owned and Managed aircraft grew by 38% to 604 at year-end 2025. Full-year revenues grew 21% while pre-tax profitability increased 43%, delivering continued improvement in pre-tax profit margin and return on equity,” Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DAE, said, while mentioning that despite the revenue growth, the balance sheet disciplines of capital adequacy, funding, and liquidity metrics were maintained.

“We intend to be very active on the sell side as well. Mainly for portfolio management purposes,” Firoz Tarapore said during the earnings call on February 4.

Stating that Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Engineering had “a very, very good year,” Firoz Tarapore said that the addition of a new hangar at its Amman, Jordan, added five new widebody and narrowbody capable lines, increasing capacity by approximately 30%. The company now has 22 fully operational lines of heavy maintenance.

“We already were the leading independent airframe heavy maintenance provider in the region, but our new size now takes us closer to the top of the league tables of global independent providers of heavy maintenance. We’re not done yet. I think for us there’s plenty of growth yet,” Firoz Tarapore noted.

The CEO further noted that Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Engineering had raised USD 3.9 billion in long-term debt financing through multiple public and private transactions during the financial year. Revenue grew 13% year-on-year to USD 211 million, while profitability grew 47% to USD 64 million.

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The Chinese military reported at approximately 1:30 AM on January 23rd that a foreign cargo vessel was sinking near a shoal. In response, they dispatched aircraft to conduct search operations, while the Chinese Coast Guard sent two vessels to assist with rescue efforts.

Additionally, they informed the media that one person was receiving emergency medical treatment. China’s maritime authorities also arranged for further rescue forces to proceed to the scene.

The Philippine Coast Guard, for its part, dispatched two vessels and two aircraft to rescue the Philippine crew of a Singapore-flagged cargo vessel carrying iron ore heading to the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang.

“The PCG Command Centre received information from the Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre that 10 of the 21 Filipino crew members had been rescued by a passing China Coast Guard vessel,” it said.

A Scarborough Shoal is one of Asia’s most disputed maritime features and a hotspot for sovereignty and fishing rights disputes.

The Chinese military announced that it had deployed naval and air force units to “expel” a Philippine government aircraft that it said had “illegally intruded” into airspace over the atoll.

The South China Sea is almost entirely claimed by China, which overlaps the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, ‌the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Despite the mishap, tensions remained at the disputed area, as the Philippines and the United States conducted a joint maritime sail in the South China Sea, underscoring growing military cooperation between the two treaty allies.

The joint sail involved coordinated manoeuvres aimed at improving interoperability and operational coordination between the armed forces. It also marked the 11th maritime cooperative activity conducted by the two allies since November 2023, reflecting the increasing frequency of their joint engagements. Meanwhile, China remains determined in its efforts to deny the Philippines’ claim on the area as its exclusive economic zone.

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Guillaume Faury’s grim prediction, which he delivered while interacting with France Inter radio, coincided with the latest feat of Boeing, where the latter, buoyed by strong demand for its 787 long-haul jet, on December 10, posted 1,000 gross orders or a net total of 908 after cancellations between January and November 2025, compared with 700 net orders for Airbus.

“The fact that we have been ahead on orders for five years means our order backlog is much higher than that of our main competitor. But they have indeed been helped by the American President as part of tariff negotiations with several countries, where plane orders became part of the resolution of trade disputes,” Guillaume Faury noted.

Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump claimed credit for helping Boeing reach the 1,000 mark after airlines announced orders for hundreds of wide-body jets coinciding with the Republican’s tour of the Gulf region in May this year.

“Boeing gave me the award for the greatest salesman in the history of Boeing, which was a nice little award. I think I have sold 1,000 Boeing planes… Now all they have to do is make them…but they will,” Trump told a group of business leaders.

As per the analysts, several airlines either placed Boeing orders or timed previously planned order announcements to soothe trade tensions with the United States in 2025, with the trends being visible particularly in Asia.

Speaking at a conference in September, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the “administration has been very helpful” in supporting sales campaigns, and that the company had benefited from Trump’s aggressive push to increase American exports. He further stressed that demand for new aircraft was also driving sales, as the aircraft maker is trying to stage a comeback after fighting safety and quality-related challenges, especially with the 737 MAX crashes, which saw two deadly crashes in 2018–2019, followed by a 2024 door panel blowout.

Also, the venture faced other setbacks in 2024, in the form of supply chain disruptions and worker protests, with both factors contributing to crippling the production activities. Boeing’s aircraft deliveries plunged by a third on a year-on-year basis. The company managed just 348 jetliner deliveries in 2024 compared to 528 in 2023, less than half of Airbus’s 766 deliveries during the same period. This translated into staggering financial losses of USD 11.8 billion in 2024 alone, pushing total losses since 2019 past the USD 35 billion mark.

The company also faced regulatory probes, lawsuits related to manufacturing defects, safety failures, and whistleblower retaliation. It had to pay USD 1.1 billion to avoid prosecution over the 2018-19 crashes that killed 346 people. While Kelly Ortberg has been successful in changing the business’ fortunes to some extent (as he succeeded David Calhoun amid numerous safety scandals), by overhauling its safety protocols through workforce retraining, whistleblower protections, and factory floor quality interventions, challenge still awaits Boeing as its 777X (including 777-9 & -8) widebody project faces significant delays, with first aircraft delivery now pushed to 2027. This setback has so far cost the planemaker nearly USD 5 billion in charges, driven by prolonged FAA certification, technical issues like engine software, supply chain problems, and quality control.

However, Guillaume Faury’s admission now means that the traditional Boeing vs Airbus rivalry is back, at least in the near term. While Airbus orders have lagged for months, Faury’s comments confirm a probable change in the ranking for new business in 2025. Despite Boeing taking an order book lead, Airbus is expected to retain its title as the world’s largest jet manufacturer.

Asked about reports of a large pending order from China, Guillaume Faury said he did not expect an imminent new order for hundreds of jets but spoke of clearances for previous orders. While Beijing has already decided to go ahead with the delivery of 120 previously ordered jets, industry sources told Reuters that the European planemaker was banking on an order for up to 500 jets from China to meet its internal order goals. Beijing is in negotiations with Boeing for a similar package.

Airbus has also renewed efforts to close a deal with AirAsia for some 100 A220S against competition from Brazil’s Embraer.

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The company’s expansion process will begin in 2027, with a new aircraft delivery scheduled each month until 2029 to reach the planned fleet size. In 2025, the airline carried 11 million passengers, and it projects to take the count to 12-13 million passengers in 2026 as the expansion gathers its speed.

Carrier flyadeal, which reported a 35% year-on-year increase in passenger capacity this December, will be inducting new aircraft types, notably the wide-body A330neo, which can carry 420 passengers. The wide-body aircraft, joining flyadeal’s fleet for the first time, will be capable of connecting Saudi airports on long-haul routes spanning from Western Europe to Southeast Asia. This will allow the low-cost venture to significantly expand its international network and develop a transcontinental operational structure to meet rising demand for travel to and from the Kingdom.

Also, flyadeal plans to restructure its operations over the next two years to achieve a balanced mix of domestic and international flights. It will result in a significant shift from the airline’s current operational structure, which relies on an 80% domestic and 20% international flight model.

In 2024, the airline closed its activities with a fleet of 36 aircraft, and in 2025, it added eight more. By this year’s end, flyadeal will have 44 aircraft, with one final delivery expected in the last week of December, Greenway said, while adding that the short-term plan includes addition of four new aircraft in 2026, bringing the fleet to 48, comprising traditional A320s, fuel-efficient A320neos, and A321s with 240 seats.

The Kingdom’s aviation sector recorded significant growth in 2024, with passenger numbers exceeding 128 million, a 15% year-on-year increase. The Kingdom’s General Authority of Civil Aviation reported more than 905,000 flights, up 11% from 2024, while air connectivity grew 16% to over 170 destinations worldwide.

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The start-up aims to utilise large solar arrays in geosynchronous orbit, approximately 22,000 miles above Earth, where satellites synchronise with the planet’s rotation to harvest sunlight. The breakthrough technology will then use infrared lasers to transmit that power to utility-scale solar farms on Earth, allowing these facilities to send power to the grid nearly around the clock.

Building Up The Concept Called Space Solar Energy

The concept of “Space Solar Energy” is taking shape quite nicely in the United States and will likely lead the next-generation clean energy research and development efforts. Among the players taking the lead in the research and development-related efforts in this arena, we have Overview Energy.

As the start-up plan revealed its use of the world’s solar panels as nighttime collectors of power beaming down from space, it also raised USD 20 million, and part of that has now gone toward an airborne demonstration of the start-up’s power-beaming technology. A light aircraft, in November 2025, transmitted power using a laser to a ground receiver over a distance of five kilometres (three miles).

However, Overview Energy will be up against competitors like renewable energy player Aetherflux, which is also pursuing a laser-based approach. Then there are ventures like Emrod (pioneering commercially viable long-range wireless power transfer technology), Orbital Composites (a venture redefining additive manufacturing with advanced composites and robotic automation), and Virtus Solis (which has reportedly designed the world’s first space-based solar power energy generation system) that are developing their versions of microwave-based power transmission, which sends energy wirelessly using a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum than Aetherflux and Overview.

Betting Big On Microwaves

Microwaves are less sensitive to clouds and humidity than infrared lasers, while the latter can’t transmit in cloudy weather since the suspended water droplets would absorb much of the energy. However, since microwave-based systems can’t reuse existing solar farms, they would have to build their own ground stations.

Also, the ground receivers need to be smaller in shape so that they can keep the costs down. In that case, the energy beams need to be tighter and more powerful to make sure they get caught by the receivers efficiently, without causing collateral damage to birds and aircraft.

While renewable industry players are working to address these challenges, Overview Energy has pitched the reuse of solar farms to mitigate some of those concerns. However, the real deal will be to convince people that energy beams from space are safe and won’t stray off target.

Also, the start-up will have to ensure its laser system is very efficient to prevent a situation where solar energy is converted to infrared light and back again.

The start-up is targeting a 2028 timeline to launch a satellite into low Earth orbit, far below the 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) at which it finally intends to operate. The satellite will start sending megawatts’ worth of power from geosynchronous orbit from 2030 onwards.

The innovation will also be facing two more rivals: cheaper grid-scale batteries, which are rewriting the United States’ energy storage rulebook, and nuclear fusion in the long run.

What prevented “space solar energy” from elevating from the concept stage to the commercial one were factors like expensive launches, fragile hardware, and, most importantly, the fact that the technology to beam power safely to Earth wasn’t ready.

However, with the rise of the private space industry, launch costs have dropped more than tenfold, and annual launches have grown massively as well. Mass manufacturing of satellites is now routine. High-efficiency photovoltaics and high-power, high-efficiency lasers have become inexpensive, reliable, and commercially available.

The start-up has set a standard for its action plan of sending megawatts’ worth of power from geosynchronous orbit: transmission must be completely safe for people, wildlife, aircraft, and other satellites, while the whole process should cost less than USD 1 billion, which will make it competitive with its industry rivals.

The start-up also plans to use significantly less land than traditional solar plants with battery storage. The solution has a distributed design, eliminating any single point of failure.

Taking A Pragmatic Path

Overview Energy’s satellites will operate at an altitude of approximately 36,000 kilometres (about 22,000 miles) in geosynchronous orbit, collecting sunlight continuously and transmitting it as low-intensity, invisible infrared light.

Since Overview Energy will be using existing solar projects as its infrared beam receivers, requirements such as new land, construction, and years-long waits for interconnection will be eliminated. The start-up’s satellites will be the first moving power plants, directing energy across regions in seconds and across continents in minutes.

This will lead to a situation where solar projects will be generating revenue during 65%-75% of operational hours, without making their assets sit idle. Utilities will be bypassing congested corridors and drawing on infinite energy reserves above the atmosphere. Households will see lower electricity costs, as satellites will be blunting the peaks that drive price spikes.

Off-takers like data centres will have access to massive energy capacity, which will help them come online in days instead of years.

The business is currently busy solving problems such as sourcing cost-efficient materials, precise tracking, and deployable architecture. The whole operational architecture is being tested and validated from lab to aircraft to orbit. Each phase is demonstrating the same core technology that will operate in space, focusing on real-world constraints, while helping the start-up inch toward its cost targets.

Airborne Demo Bringing The Concept To Reality

In November 2025, the start-up achieved a world first in power beaming, as it transmitted power from a moving aeroplane to solar panels on the ground, covering a distance of more than 5,000 metres in the process.

Overview Energy’s team installed laser and optical systems on a Cessna Caravan and flew at an altitude of over 5,000 m (16,500 ft). On the ground, it installed a receiver of standard solar panels, the same kind used in utility-scale projects or homes.

As the aircraft flew overhead, the system identified the receiver, locked onto it, and delivered power through an eye-safe beam. The panels convert that light into electricity in the same way they convert sunlight.

The whole experiment validated the performance of Overview Energy’s core technical pieces that will realise the concept of “Space Solar Energy.” The proof-of-concept phase has also been completed with the airborne technology demonstration. It will now be followed by a pilot low Earth orbit (LEO) mission in 2028 that will demonstrate the full system’s performance in space. The final step will be the Overview Energy’s geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellites taking over the proceedings in 2029–2030, where they will see the sun 99% of the time.

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The expansion supports Oman’s long-term aviation strategy, which aims to raise the sector’s GDP contribution from 159 million Omani rials (USD 413 million) in 2018 to 890 million rials by 2030, a more than sixfold increase. The strategy also targets handling 40 million passengers annually by 2030, double the levels recorded in 2019.

“The authority has focused on maximising the benefits of Oman’s position as a regional and global logistics hub, leveraging its strategic geographic location on international air routes. This is achieved through the development of Omani airports as key hubs for air connectivity and the transport of goods and passengers, facilitating domestic connections and encouraging tourism between the governorates,” the ONA reported.

The development comes amid the good news of the Sultanate’s aviation sector experiencing a remarkable revenue surge. In 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority of Oman (CAA) reported a staggering 43% increase in revenue, reaching a total of RO 105.31 million compared to 2023’s RO 73.39 million.

Oman has continued to implement a broader strategy to establish itself as a regional aviation hub, leveraging its geographic location and world-class infrastructure.

According to the analysts, the latest revenue numbers will have far-reaching implications, strengthening the Sultanate’s position in global tourism, cargo logistics, and international investment.

The number of aircraft movements in Omani airspace surged by 14% in 2024, marking over 530,300 aircraft movements compared to 465,100 in 2023. Apart from expanding its network by establishing new air routes, which have connected the Gulf nation to major cities in Asia, Europe, and Africa, there has been a parallel rise in domestic flights and routes between Oman’s major cities, through a network of smaller regional airports.

The Oman Civil Aviation Authority has also facilitated partnerships with both full-service and low-cost carriers, increasing the volume of tourists and business travellers flying into the Sultanate.

The nation is also positioning itself as a regional logistics and cargo hub, capitalising on its strategic location between Europe, Africa, and Asia. The expansion of cargo services is contributing significantly to the increase in aviation sector-related revenue flow.

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“If you look at the capital deployment that we are going to have over the next five years, we are going to be investing USD 10 billion in new aircraft or USD 2 billion per year. We have another USD 37 billion coming from our own cash flow generation, so essentially, it’s on us to finance our growth,” he said.

Neves also confirmed that the Abu Dhabi carrier, which is speculated to go public in 2026, is ready to roll out its IPO as needed.

“We are ready to go. We could go public anytime. But that is not an objective function that we have as a management or as a board. When companies usually go public, it is to finance growth. We don’t need that,” the Group CEO continued.

Abu Dhabi sovereign investor ADQ retains full ownership of Etihad Airways, which reported 20% year-on-year growth and a 25% increase in September.

During the Dubai Airshow, the airline announced a major expansion of its widebody fleet with 32 additional Airbus aircraft, further accelerating the flag carrier’s growth and reinforcing its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing full-service players.

The agreement includes a mix of A350-1000s, A350F freighters, and A330-900s through both direct orders and lease commitments, with first deliveries beginning in 2027, which also marks one of the earliest widebody availability windows in the global aviation market.

This new commitment follows Etihad Airways’ agreement earlier in 2025 for 28 additional Boeing widebody aircraft, bringing the airline’s total new widebody orders for 2025 to 60 across the two major aviation giants.

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