Into the future with sustainable fuels
Into the future with sustainable fuels

MEP
Hildegard Bentele visits

Published: 31 January 2022, 11:00

Into the future with sustainable fuels

MEP Hildegard Bentele visits BER 

With sun, wind and hydrogen: the switch to sustainable fuels for aircraft is defining the future of the airline industry. How are airports preparing for these changes? And how are they contributing to their own declared climate protection goal: carbon-neutral operations by 2045?

On Friday 28 January, Berlin MEP Hildegard Bentele, representing the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) at the European Parliament, visited Berlin Brandenburg Airport to find out more about the topic.  

At BER, Bentele held discussions with Ralph Beisel, head of the airport association ADV, and airport manager Aletta von Massenbach. 

Vorfeld-Equipment

 

They talked in particular about the introduction of sustainable fuels in air traffic and the orientation of the airport’s infrastructure towards electrical energy. As examples, in the future apron buses, baggage carousels and push-backs capable of moving 160 tonne aircraft from their park position will be powered solely by electricity. 

The ground handling service provider WISAG is already working with electric apron equipment at BER, which it presented on Friday.

Hildegard Bentele is shadow rapporteur in the EU Parliament's Industry Committee on the ReFuelEU Directive, under which fuel suppliers are obliged to increasingly blend sustainable aviation fuels into the paraffin taken on board at EU airports, with primacy given to synthetic low-carbon fuels.

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