AGS Airports, which owns and operates Glasgow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports in the UK, has partnered with ZeroAvia to explore the development of fuel infrastructure, regulatory framework requirements and resourcing required for delivering zero-emission flights from both Aberdeen and Glasgow airports.
Both companies will now forge ahead with assessing the opportunities for hydrogen production onsite, as well as exploring potential commercial routes. The aim is to work towards a flight demonstration powered by ZeroAvia’s ZA600 600kW hydrogen-electric engine, which is on a path towards certification by 2025.
Switching some routes to aircraft powered by ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric powertrain will help AGS Airports to reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions from aircraft and reduce noise and air quality impacts locally. AGS will also explore how hydrogen can be used to remove emissions across its ground operations.
“The development of hydrogen powered aircraft has the potential to completely revolutionise aviation and it is becoming an increasingly viable option for regional and short-haul aircraft,” said Derek Provan, CEO of AGS Airports. “As a regional airport group serving the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as well as the Channel Islands from Southampton, AGS will be the perfect testbed for hydrogen flight. Through our partnership with ZeroAvia we’ll address some of the challenges associated with the generation, delivery and storage of hydrogen on-site and how we can prepare our infrastructure to support zero-emission flights.”
