Hydrogen-Electric flights at Rotterdam The Hague Airport by 2025

ZeroAvia, a developer of zero-emission solutions for commercial aviation, has announced the signing of a collaboration agreement with Shell, Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport.

Together they will develop a concept of operations for hydrogen in airports and demonstration flights to European destinations by the end of 2024, with commercial passenger flights planned for 2025.

This specific collaboration will focus on serving the first hydrogen flight from Rotterdam, including operation at the airport, developing on-the-ground infrastructure and operations to satisfactorily pilot distribution, storage, and dispensing of hydrogen for aviation, leading towards decarbonising the whole airport ecosystem.

The project targets supporting aircraft operations using gaseous hydrogen to fuel ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric, zero-emission ZA600 engines. For these specific demonstration flights, the parties aim to establish routes to airports in Europe within 250 nautical mile radius of Rotterdam. Last month, ZeroAvia demonstrated the first flight of a 19-seat aircraft powered by its prototype ZA600 engine.

This project will also target the development of aviation specific standards and protocols around safety, refuelling and hydrogen management, enabling rollout of the promising fuel seamlessly. The parties will work together in discussions with potential airline operators for the initial demonstration and subsequent commercial flights.

Arnab Chatterjee, VP, Infrastructure, ZeroAvia, said: “Having this consortium, including Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport and Shell, moves the ball a significant distance down the field towards our goal line of commercial operations. Some first passengers on zero-emission flights in the world could be flying from Rotterdam.

“There is still a lot of work to do, but with clear milestones and targets identified, the hard work really starts now towards delivering the infrastructure and exploring the protocols and standards required.”

In the latest issue of ITIJ, sustainability in relation to travel and health was discussed.