Hamburg and Rotterdam announce collaboration to explore the feasibility of a route for hydrogen powered aircraft.
Hamburg Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport and Hamburg Aviation announce a collaboration to explore the feasibility of a route for hydrogen-powered aircraft between Hamburg and Rotterdam. The declaration of intent also includes cooperation in the development of an infrastructure for the use of hydrogen.
As part of the collaboration, 2026 is assumed to be a possible date for a first hydrogen flight. The parties involved assume that there will be such commercial flights between the cities of Hamburg and Rotterdam in the future.
In addition to the development of hydrogen technologies, the MOU also includes cooperation on other technologies, including digitized airports and digital aviation, renewable energy production and infrastructure, specialized employee training and smart airport technologies. The scope of the cooperation also includes a more in-depth cooperation in the area of sustainable airport operations. The two airports RTHA and HAM have made important progress in this area.
Michael Eggenschwiler , CEO at Hamburg Airport :
As Flughafen Hamburg GmbH, we have set ourselves the goal of reducing our fossil CO2 emissions to zero in twelve years with the Net Zero 2035 climate protection program – as the first major commercial airport in Germany.
“Part of this The strategy is to work together with other cooperation partners to enable “green” flying as quickly as possible, including with hydrogen-based technologies. The planned hydrogen flight route between Hamburg and Rotterdam is a very good example of how strong partners are pooling their strengths, to develop and implement sustainable aviation using practical examples.”
Wilma van Dijk , Managing Director of Rotterdam The Hague Airport, said:
We have far-reaching ambitions to make our airport more sustainable and to make a strong contribution to sustainable aviation.
“By sharing both our growing expertise in hydrogen infrastructure and operations, as well as our innovative real-world laboratory, we ensure that the parties involved work optimally together to accelerate the energy transition in aviation. We are therefore very proud to be part of this collaboration, which will enable us to make the first hydrogen flight between Rotterdam and Hamburg possible in a few years’ time.”
Ralf Gust, Managing Director of the cluster network Hamburg Aviation, said:
As one of the first collaborations of this kind in Europe, this exciting initiative shows the intention of two European airports to explore the path to a flight route for hydrogen-powered aircraft and the steps necessary to implement this idea.
“Hamburg and Rotterdam are both hubs of hydrogen aeronautics research, so this partnership is ideal for exploring what it takes to set up hydrogen aircraft flight paths. I am sure that the partners in our cluster network will benefit from the sharing of expertise that is at the heart of this agreement. It is another catalyst on the way to a future hydrogen air route network, which in turn is a crucial way to achieve our net zero goals,” continued Gust.
Miranda Janse, Director of the Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport Foundation said:
This collaboration is an important step towards decarbonising the aviation sector and expanding hydrogen-powered aircraft.
“We are taking the first step in turning ideas and plans into action by enabling an operational corridor for hydrogen. It is great that Hamburg and Rotterdam are leading the way to hydrogen aviation.”
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Hamburg and Rotterdam announce collaboration to establish a hydrogen flight route, Hamburg/Rotterdam/Paris, June 21, 2023