One way the budget airlines are able to offer such low airfare is by cutting costs. T’his means luggage fees, tighter seating, and now hybrid airplanes. How much can a hybrid fleet save a small airline like EasyJet? 35-million per year!
This isn’t your typical hybrid though. Don’t expect an Prius styled airplane running on batteries or anything like that. The way the jumbo-jet hybrid system works is that the main engines are not used when the airplane is taxiing. Apparently taxiing around the runway is approximately 4 percent of the airlines annual fuel consumption. Who knew?
The airplane hybrid system will use hydrogen fuel cells to power the planes as they taxi. Additionally the waste product of the hydrogen fuel cell, water, will be used for drinking water or toilet flushing.
