Gathering Place: Q&A with Mark Masluch

Welcome to Gathering Place. In this monthly series, you will find the answers to your questions directly from members of the Bombardier Leadership Team. This month we’ve featured the insights of Senior Director, Communications, Mark Masluch, who has worked with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Environment Committee for many years. He is a passionate advocate for sustainability across the industry, particularly on the environment and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

Read on for this month’s customer question:

Question: I would like to ask what Bombardier's development plan for the fossil [fuel]-free aircraft of the future looks like, and how Bombardier views that challenge in business aviation.

Answer from Senior Director, Communications, Mark Masluch: As a leading member of the Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF Coalition), Bombardier views sustainability as an important priority. SAF is a sustainable class of fuel that is chemically identical to jet fuel and certified to the same ASTM standard. SAF – derived from cooking oils, animal fats, and other sustainable feedstocks – burns cleaner than regular fuel and reduces overall carbon emissions throughout the fuel’s full lifecylce. SAF meets all the specification requirements of jet A fuel – engines and APUs deliver the same thrust and aircraft deliver the same performance. Moreover, no modifications are required to the aircraft, regardless of the aircraft’s mission, because SAF is a drop-in fuel.  

Since 2017, Bombardier has been using SAF for customer flights and to fly its fleet of demonstration aircraft to major airshows and events, raising industry awareness of SAF as a mainstream alternative to traditional jet fuel.

Further highlighting Bombardier’s commitment to sustainability, the flagship Global 7500 aircraft is the first business jet in the industry to have received an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). The EPD provides a nose-to-tail full life cycle accounting of all materials and processes in manufacturing, operating and recycling of an aircraft. It further allows Bombardier to continue to learn, providing a benchmark of environmental metrics with which to improve on with future aircraft programs.  

For example, Bombardier’s new Challenger 3500 is also designed with sustainability in mind. This aircraft will also publish an EPD, and be the first business jet to have a flight test program that is entirely carbon neutral, thanks to a combination of SAF and carbon offsetting. With the Challenger 3500 jet, Bombardier also introduced technology in the cockpit to help operators optimize routes to burn less fuel leading to a diminished environmental footprint.  

Bombardier continues to demonstrate its role in leading the industry’s environmental engagement and as a driving force to promote the use of alternative fuels in in the day-to-day operations of business jets. As part of this commitment, Bombardier has pledged to communicate the environmental performance through an Environmental Product Declaration of all new aircraft programs going forward. Bombardier is proud to be a leader in guiding business aviation towards a greener future. 

We look forward to hearing what questions you have in store for our leadership team! For the chance to have your question answered in Gathering Place, please write to us here.