ZeroAvia & Shell Advance Plans for Hydrogen-Electric Flights by 2025 at Rotterdam The Hague Airport

ZeroAvia, a UK developer of zero-emission solutions for commercial aviation, has signed a collaboration agreement with Shell and  Rotterdam The Hague Airport to develop a concept of operations for hydrogen in airports. Demonstration flights to European destinations will start by the end of 2024, gearing up for commercial passenger flights by 2025.

The 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.

Ultimately, the project targets supporting aircraft operations using gaseous hydrogen to fuel ZeroAvia's hydrogen-electric, zero-emission ZA600 engines. 

This project will also target the development of aviation specific standards and protocols around safety, refueling 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.

Shell has expertise related to hydrogen end-to-end supply chains and global experiences in design and operation of refueling equipment, including hydrogen.

Arnab Chatterjee, VP, Infrastructure, ZeroAvia, says: "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."

Oliver Bishop, General Manager Hydrogen at Shell, adds: "This project and collaboration is a milestone as it enables a rapid decarbonization of a hard-to-electrify sector such as aviation. It also offers the chance to support one of the first international zero-emission passenger routes. On top of that, it allows the opportunity to road test multi-fuel and multimodal fueling operations in a live airport environment. This is a big step forward for hydrogen aviation and for Shell's plans in this space."

Wilma Van Dijk, CEO, Rotterdam The Hague Airport of Royal Schiphol Group, comments: " Hydrogen is key to decarbonize aviation. This collaboration helps us demonstrate and validate new airport infrastructure requirements as well as concepts of operation. And hence accelerate and stimulate airport transformation towards Zero-Emission."

ZeroAvia is a leader in zero-emission aviation, focused on hydrogen-electric aviation solutions to address a variety of markets, initially targeting a 300-mile range in 9–19 seat aircraft by 2025, and up to 700-mile range in 40–80 seat aircraft by 2027.