Industry

Airbus and others study the creation of Spain’s first hydrogen airport hub

Airbus, Aena, Air Nostrum, Iberia, Exolum and Repsol are partnering to study the creation of the first hydrogen airport hub located in Spain.

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The 6 companies have joined forces to address the main challenges to deploy hydrogen-powered aviation in the country. This is the first time that a collaboration brings together the entire value chain from primary energy production, hydrogen ground operations, with two airlines on board and across a complete network of airports at the same time.

This collaboration will provide the partners with a view of the hydrogen-powered aircraft and how it can be integrated into the airport ecosystem. It will not only focus on hydrogen supply and infrastructure, but also on the specific requirements for ground operations at airports. The ultimate goal is to foster and support the growth of the hydrogen aviation ecosystem in Spain.

“At Airbus, the decarbonisation of aviation is one of our most important goals and the deployment of hydrogen powered commercial aircraft with its ecosystem is one of those  key levers. Given Spain’s great potential in renewables and low carbon hydrogen production, it is essential that the aviation industry as a whole collaborates to secure a future end-to-end hydrogen supply chain up to the airports,” said Karine Guenan, Airbus’ Vice President ZEROe Ecosystem.

“The decarbonisation of the air transport sector is a priority for Aena. This collaboration will allow us to gain a broader understanding of how the process of supplying hydrogen to Spanish airports could materialise in the future, in order to establish a roadmap to address the main challenges presented by the introduction of this new energy vector in an airport environment,” addedAna Salazar, director of sustainability at Aena.

Airbus launched the “Hydrogen Hub at Airports” programme to promote the further expansion of hydrogen infrastructure in aviation. To date, agreements have been signed with partners and airports in 13 countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.