ZeroAvia and Birmingham Airport (BHX) have announced a partnership to support hydrogen-powered air travel.
Throughout the long-term partnership, the companies will develop on-airfield hydrogen refuelling systems to enable regular domestic hydrogen-powered passenger flights from BHX.
ZeroAvia is a manufacturer of technologies for hydrogen-electric-powered aircraft, such as the one that was successfully test-flown in Kemble, Gloucestershire last month.
It is currently working on commercialising such a system capable of flying a 20-seat aircraft 300 nautical miles by 2025.
This could provide hydrogen-powered air travel from BHX to destinations such as Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast and Dublin.
To make hydrogen-powered travel to Mediterranean holiday destinations a reality, ZeroAvia also aims to fly a direct-emissions-free 80-seat aircraft up to 1,000 nautical miles by 2027.
Arnab Chatterjee, VP Infrastructure, ZeroAvia, said:Birmingham Airport can be a central spoke in a green flight network in the UK, given that any domestic mainland destination will be reachable from the airport using our first systems in 2025. Given the commitments of the Jet Zero Strategy on domestic aviation, it is fantastic to engage with forward-thinking airports that want to be early innovators and developers to deliver the vision of bringing truly clean, quiet and pollution free flights to the UK.
For BHX, this partnership is part of its journey to become a “net-zero-carbon airport” by 2033.
The airport plans to use an area near to its disused Elmdon terminal building as a potential location for hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, testing and operations.
Simon Richards, Chief Finance & Sustainability Officer, Birmingham Airport, said:We are thrilled to partner with ZeroAvia on creating solutions to the main challenge of our generation – protecting the future of our planet. We could, quite conceivably, see the first hydrogen-powered domestic passenger flight taking off from BHX in the UK in a few years. That’s mind-blowing.
