Hamburg & Rotterdam airports sign hydrogen cooperation
Hamburg and Rotterdam The Hague airports are cooperating to explore the feasibility of a flight route for hydrogen-powered aircraft between Hamburg and Rotterdam. The MoU also includes cooperation on the development of a hydrogen infrastructure.
The cooperation assumes 2026 as a possible date for the first hydrogen flight, and the airports assume that there will be such commercial flights between the cities of Hamburg and Rotterdam in the future.
In addition to the hydrogen technology and refuelling infrastructure, the cooperation also includes other technologies “such as digitised airports and aviation, renewable energy production, infrastructure, advanced training and smart airport technology.” The aircraft themselves are not part of the cooperation, however, as the airport is looking at the infrastructure to support the technology, rather than getting the actual planes up in the air. Questioned by an electrive reporter, a spokesperson for the Hamburg airport explained: “Hamburg Airport provides the infrastructure, not the aircraft technology. In principle, we are open to technology, but current designs rather envisage the solution with a fuel cell.”
“As Flughafen Hamburg GmbH, we have set ourselves the goal of reducing our fossil CO2 emissions to zero in twelve years with the climate protection programme Net Zero 2035 – as the first major commercial airport in Germany,” said Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport, adding: “Part of this strategy is to enable ‘green’ flying together with other cooperation partners as soon as possible, among other things with hydrogen-based technologies.” Wilma van Dijk, CEO of Rotterdam The Hague Airport, added: “By sharing our increasing expertise on hydrogen infrastructure and operations together with our innovation field lab, the parties involved are working together in an optimal way to accelerate the energy transition in the aviation sector.”
Rotterdam Airport also recently signed a cooperation with Shell and ZeroAvia to develop a concept for hydrogen operations at airports by the end of 2024 and to conduct demonstration flights to European destinations. The city of Rotterdam is supporting the expansion into hydrogen mobility, as it signed on to the European hydrogen corridor in 2020, and a hydrogen filling station is being built by Air Products at the port of Rotterdam.
As a major port city, Hamburg has made similar efforts with port infrastructure, but has also seen testing with a hydrogen aircraft at the Hamburg airport as early as 2021.
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