Agreement envisages possible first flight of hydrogen aircraft in 2026.
Hamburg Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport and Hamburg Aviation today announced a new collaboration to explore the viability of a hydrogen flight route between Hamburg and Rotterdam. The MoU also covers a broader cooperation to develop hydrogen infrastructure and to contribute to the creation of relevant industry standards. Using 2026 as a guideline date for a maiden flight on a Hamburg-Rotterdam hydrogen flight route, the signatories envision commercial flights between RTHA and HAM in the future.
In addition to hydrogen technology, the agreement expressly encourages cooperation on other technologies such as digitised airports and aviation, renewable energy production, infrastructure, advanced training and smart airport technology. The scope of the MoU also includes deepening technical cooperation on sustainable airport operation, a field where both RTHA and HAM have made important strides in recent years.
Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO 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 climate protection programme Net Zero 2035 – as the first major commercial airport in Germany. Part of this strategy is to enable ‘green’ flying together with other cooperation partners as soon as possible, among other things with hydrogen-based technologies. Here, the planned hydrogen flight route between Hamburg and Rotterdam is a very good example of how strong partners join forces to develop and implement sustainable aviation using a practical example.”
“We have high ambitions with regard to making our airport more sustainable and making a strong contribution to sustainable aviation,” said Wilma van Dijk, CEO of Rotterdam The Hague Airport. “By sharing our increasing expertise on hydrogen infrastructure and operations together with our innovation field lab, the parties involved are working together in an optimal way to accelerate the energy transition in the aviation sector. We are therefore extremely proud to be part of this collaboration in which we will facilitate the first hydrogen flight between Rotterdam and Hamburg in just a few years.”
“As one of the first collaborations of its kind in Europe, this exciting initiative sets out the intention of two European airports to chart a path towards a flight route for hydrogen aircraft, exploring what’s needed to turn this idea into reality,” comments Ralf Gust, Managing Director of cluster network Hamburg Aviation. “Hamburg and Rotterdam are both hubs of advanced aviation research in the field of hydrogen, making this an ideal partnership to explore what’s needed to establish flight routes for hydrogen aircraft. I am certain that the partners in our cluster network will benefit from the sharing of expertise that’s core to this agreement. It’s a further catalyst towards a future hydrogen route network in aviation, itself a crucial path towards meeting our net zero targets,” Gust adds.
“This collaboration is an important step to decarbonize the aviation sector and scale up hydrogen-powered aircraft,” comments Miranda Janse, director at Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport foundation. “We are making the first step in turning ideas and plans into real action, by enabling an operational corridor for hydrogen. It is great that Hamburg and Rotterdam are leading the path forward in hydrogen aviation.”
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