BUSINESS NEWS


EasyJet and Bristol airport carry out hydrogen fuel trial


EasyJet and Bristol airport completed a groundbreaking trial with the first hydrogen-refuelling evaluation at a UK airport last week, with the CAA reviewing its safety. The trial, dubbed Project


Acorn, saw hydrogen used to refuel and power baggage tractors, or ground support equipment (GSE), servicing easyJet aircraft as part of


daily operations, demonstrating the gas can be used safely to refuel ground equipment in a live airport environment. The results will be used to


develop the first safety guidance on hydrogen use for airports, airlines,


local authorities and regulators and to develop a regulatory framework. The trial also aims to accelerate the use of hydrogen more widely. The project involved


organisations across aviation, engineering, logistics and academia including Cranfield University. CAA director for strategy, policy


and communications Tim Johnson said: “This trial will allow for the creation of safety guidance and regulatory standards for the use of hydrogen in aviation.” EasyJet chief operating officer


David Morgan said: “Hydrogen will be an important fuel of the future.”


Debt and lack of traffic hit small regional airports


Ian Taylor


Many of Europe’s smaller regional airports are struggling to recover air traffic and pay down pandemic- era debt, according to airports association ACI Europe. The association’s deputy director


general Morgan Foulkes warned last week: “It’s financial crunch time for Europe’s regional airports.” Foulkes told the ACI Europe


regional airports conference that “new market dynamics [are] exacerbating competitive pressures” and squeezing the sector with “unprecedented intensity… making it more difficult to break even, let alone finance investment in decarbonisation, digitalisation and infrastructure”. He said smaller airports are


struggling with “below break-even revenues” from the charges paid by airlines that “have been on a steady decline in real terms over the past five


travelweekly.co.uk


years and are reaching an all-time low”. ACI Europe reported regional


airports with less than five million passengers a year are charging airlines 16% less on average than in 2019. UK airports of this size include Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds Bradford, East Midlands, Aberdeen and Belfast City. It noted that while larger regional


airports, “in particular those serving popular tourism destinations or relying on visiting friends and relatives traffic” have generally outperformed the European average for passenger traffic, smaller airports have “significantly underperformed”. Traffic at larger regional airports,


handling up to 10 million passengers a year, was up 7.5% versus 2019 in January and February, ACI Europe reported, but traffic at airports handling one million or fewer passengers remained 39% down. Small regional airports in the UK include Bournemouth, Cardiff,


Newquay airport


Inverness, Southampton, Prestwick, Exeter, Newquay, Norwich, Teesside, City of Derry and Southend. ACI Europe suggested the


shortfall in traffic was due to “post-Covid structural shifts in the aviation market”, citing “the accelerated use of ultra low-cost carriers and relative retrenchment of network carriers” such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France- KLM, whose regional capacity remains 24.5% down on 2019. It noted domestic traffic,


frequently the mainstay of smaller airports, remains 6% below pre- Covid levels.


18 APRIL 2024 47


Iata releases guidelines for reducing SUPs


Iata issued a series of recommendations on reducing single-use plastics (SUPs) in aviation last week. In a report aimed at airlines,


regulators and airline suppliers, entitled ‘Reassessing Single Use Plastic Products in the Airline Sector’, Iata noted SUPs “are widely used in aviation due to their strength and lightness” and the sector “faces challenges with improved cabin waste performance and replacement of SUPs”. “Airlines face technical and


operational obstacles, and the lack of harmonised regulations presents a significant barrier,” it added. The report recommends


airlines reduce waste at source and “set clear targets for elimination, measurement and tracking, and disclose progress”; introduce reusable items while noting “the impact of potential added weight”; and improve waste management “by facilitating onboard and ground waste segregation”. It urged regulators to develop


“simple harmonised regulations [and] guidance that allows for common global definitions and standards for alternative products”, and for the development of waste segregation and recovery infrastructure at airports.


Iata report recommends reducing waste at source


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Pawel Pietraszewski


Cornwall Airport Newquay 2024


PICTURE: Shutterstock/Mariaprovector


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