Gatwick plots course for hydrogen flight

According to the partners, the project will cover liquid hydrogen supply and storage at the airport, refuelling and ground handling of hydrogen aircraft, as well as the exploration of shorter-term opportunities for using hydrogen at Gatwick. The airport is the biggest operating base for Easyjet, one of the UK’s largest short and medium haul airlines. As early hydrogen aircraft are likely to operate across shorter routes, the partners believe Gatwick is the ‘ideal testbed’ for R&D into critical support infrastructure for hydrogen flight. 

“Alongside Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), hydrogen stands out as having real potential to help us decarbonise Scope 3 emissions at the airport, particularly for the short haul aircraft that dominate London Gatwick’s operations,” Stewart Wingate, London Gatwick’s CEO said in a statement. 

“In parallel we’ve accelerated our plans and aim to be net zero for the emissions we control – Scope 1 and 2 - ten years early, by 2030. We still have a long way to go and a lot of hard work to do, but today’s exciting partnership is an important early step toward reaching our net zero ambitions.”