Together, the group – which also includes Air Canada, Air France-KLM, LATAM Airlines Group and Lufthansa Group – have agreed to look at a future supply of carbon removal credits from direct air carbon capture technology.

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) is a high-potential technology that involves filtering and removing CO2 emissions directly from the air using high powered fans.

Once removed from the air, the CO2 is safely and permanently stored in geologic reservoirs. As the aviation industry cannot capture CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere at source, a direct air carbon capture and storage solution would allow the sector to extract the equivalent amount of emissions from its operations directly from atmospheric air. 

As part of the agreements, the airlines have committed to engage in negotiations on the possible pre-purchase of verified and durable carbon removal credits starting in 2025 through to 2028.

"We are already seeing strong interest from airlines to explore affordable and scalable carbon removals," said Julie Kitcher, executive vice president communications and corporate affairs for Airbus.

"These first letters of intent mark a concrete step towards the use of this promising technology for both Airbus’ own decarbonisation plan and the aviation sector’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050."

Jane Ashton, easyJet’s director of sustainability, said direct air capture is a "nascent technology with a huge potential".

"We believe that carbon removal solutions will be an essential element of our pathway to net zero, complementing other components and helping us to neutralise any residual emissions in the future," she added.

"Ultimately, our ambition is to achieve zero carbon emission flying, and we are working with partners across the industry, including Airbus, on several dedicated projects to accelerate the development of future zero carbon emission aircraft technology."