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

The six 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 holistic 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.

María José Sanz, Director of Quality and Environment at Air Nostrum, explained: “Our commitment is to be at the side of the developers of new technologies aimed at decarbonising air transport. As a regional airline, we can be relevant in the project because we have the necessary conditions to become the first implementers of hydrogen technology, thanks to the size of our aircraft and the average distance we fly”.

Teresa Parejo, Iberia’s Director of Sustainability, added : “collaboration between the different actors is necessary to advance in the decarbonisation of the sector. Hydrogen will foreseeably be part of the future of aviation, which will come later and will complement the development of sustainable fuels; to reach that future we must start taking the first steps now”.

Andrés Suárez Global Strategy & Innovation Lead of Exolum stated: “At Exolum we are committed to the development and operation of infrastructures that contribute to boosting the energy transition and the decarbonisation of air mobility in all its areas and especially with the deployment of hydrogen as a future energy solution for the sector”. 

Luis de Oyarzabal, Repsol´s senior manager of New Business said: “Renewable hydrogen is key in our decarbonization strategy. Not only will we use it in our industrial applications, but we also envision its potential in the field of mobility. To promote this market, we consider it is essential to collaborate with the best partners, joined together in this hub, to get the most potential out of the opportunity we have”.

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.

Airbus release