While other industries have clear road maps to reduce emissions, Shaw said the aviation sector has been left behind. He also believes Australia has slowly lost its innovative spirit.

“We are importers of others’ technology,” he said. “Our challenge as Dovetail is to bring back aviation innovation aviation into Australia. There are lots of talented and intelligent people in this country and we lose them overseas because that’s where the opportunities are.

“We want to offer long-term, opportunities. I think we can be achievers in this space.”

Two years ago, the company indicated it wanted to create an all-electric and zero-emissions airline by 2025. The project is in the early days of ground-based trials and tests on their electric motor, and there’s no guarantee the entire fleet will make the transition by the end date.

But Shaw is confident that within two years, they will have certified at least one of their planes to be a commercial electric flight. Dovetail recently secured $3 million from the federal government to develop, test and certify the conversion.

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Regional Express is responsible for carrying about five per cent of passenger flights and is banking on electric aircraft to revolutionise its short-haul route map. The airline has scheduled trials to start in Wagga Wagga early next year, with one of its 24-seat Saab 340s retrofitted with a hydrogen-powered electric MagniX engine. It will be tested to fly one-hour routes. If successful, there are up to 11,000 nine to 19-seat aircraft that could be retrofitted with electric engines around the world.

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp acknowledged there are other hoops to jump through before the airline’s dream of retrofitting the bulk of its Saab fleet can be a reality. After the airline is satisfied with the trials, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority will need to provide approvals to fly the aircraft commercially, a process Sharp is expecting to be lengthy.

“We want to do it quickly, but it’s more important for it to be done safely and this is certainly not as simple as just ticking a box but at the end of the day, I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble getting certified. We expect to see our electric aircraft flying within the decade,” Sharp said.

Sharp argues critics of electric aviation are too focused on “minor” hurdles such as building the infrastructure to store the hydrogen or the charging process upon landing.

“Hydrogen is actually very portable, and it’s easy to make. There are logistical aspects to work out, but overall, I see electrification as viable for Rex,” he said, adding the transition would deliver a quieter, cheaper way to fly for passengers, reduce operating expenses by up to 40 per cent and could even result in the airline expanding its routes to regional destinations that aren’t currently commercially viable.

Other industry experts aren’t so sure. The director of global markets at Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting, Matthew Findlay, says only time will tell if electric-powered aircraft is a viable idea.

“There are a lot of competing ideas at the moment. I doubt all will work but at least one should, it’s just about timing. Still, the hurdles aren’t small. It feels almost like the Jetsons currently, a bit pipe-dream-esque,” Findlay said, adding the first company to make electrification a reality will almost certainly reap significant economic rewards.

“It’s heartening to see airlines investing heavily in decarbonisation, but it’s also their only option as the pressure of their social licence mounts. Emissions reduction needs to be front of mind across the industry.”

While battery and hydrogen might work on smaller planes, big aviation companies are also trying to make the push towards greener travel. Airbus and Boeing Co are among those making inroads, investigating with the latter investing in an all-electric four-seater that can fly without a human pilot and a Swedish start-up is building a 30-person commuter plane that can travel 800 kilometres. This week Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries joined a consortium of businesses including ASX-listed airline Air New Zealand and Airbus in a research project to “design a hydrogen ecosystem for aviation” within the decade.

But University of Sydney professor Christopher Wright, an expert in organisational studies, says trying to make the aviation sector more sustainable is difficult.

“The commercial airline industry for travel is based on the business’s continued growth. We see the future as more and more people flying and not just in the developed world, but in the expansion of developing markets,” he said. “There is a disconnect in the industry, climate change and the science that is saying it is too late in the day and that radical decarbonisation pathways are needed to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change.”

Unlike other major airlines including Qantas, Regional Express is sceptical of banking on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a jet fuel alternative made from crops, household waste and other biomass which produces one-fifth of the emissions of conventional jet fuel, to decarbonise the industry.

“SAF is extraordinarily expensive and there’s a huge gap of investment. Who is going to stump it up? Even if the investment was there, the cost of the input is still much more expensive than traditional fuel and although it’s made of waste material and other matters, it’s also made of grains we’d normally be eating,” Sharp said.

As it stands, there’s currently only enough sustainable aviation fuel being produced to replace less than one per cent of the global industry, and it’s more than double the price. Qantas has so far invested $307 million into developing Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry with Airbus and chief executive Alan Joyce, along with many other major airline executives, arguing it’s the only way forward to meaningfully decarbonise the industry.