ELECTRIFYING THE SKIES: HOW ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT COULD SLASH CO2 ON SPANISH-EU ROUTES

Spain's busiest airports handled thousands of flights in 2023, producing significant carbon emissions. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of CO2 emissions from 686.527 point-to-point flights connecting the top 10 Spanish airports with all the European (E1 sector) destinations and evaluates a strategy to reduce these emissions using 100% electric aircraft with 800 km range on high-emission routes. Detailed OAG 2023 data and European Environment Agency (EEA) methodologies are used to estimate fuel burn and CO2 per flight segment. The results identify "hotspot" routes – notably short regional hops (~200–300 km) and medium-haul flights (~2000–3000 km) – that are disproportionately carbon-intensive. We then model a stopover-based routing solution in which conventional jets on select routes are replaced by electric aircraft with necessary en-route recharging stops. The feasibility of these electric routes is assessed in terms of flight range, battery recharge requirements, travel time, and operating cost. The proposed electric substitutions yield significant CO2 savings essentially eliminating emissions on feasible segments. We discuss the potential national-scale CO2 reduction (percentage of total aviation emissions) and address the technical, operational, and economic challenges (limited range, capacity, infrastructure needs) of scaling electric aviation. This study provides engineering insights into how regional electric aircraft deployment could contribute to Spain's and Europe’s aviation decarbonization strategy in the near future. Keywords: Aviation emissions; Electric aircraft; Regional flights; Decarbonization; Spain; Stopover routing; Carbon reduction