Why airport investment must prioritise infrastructure for clean flying — Environmental Audit Committee inquiry evidence

Full written evidence to Environmental Audit Committee inquiry

The role of airports in decarbonising aviation

(Numbers in square brackets refer to footnotes found at the bottom.)

1. The UK has a comprehensive landscape of statutory and non-statutory targets, policies and regulations to limit the climate impacts of aviation. At the heart of the policy landscape is the Jet Zero Strategy, which sets out how the aviation industry will achieve its goal of reducing emissions to net zero by 2050. Central to this is the sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) mandate, which outlines how fuel suppliers must gradually increase the supply of SAF in the fuel mix over the year up to 2040. To date there is no policy framework in place to mandate the introduction of zero carbon emission aircraft, however both government and industry roadmaps indicate that zero carbon emission aircraft will make up part of the aviation fleet by 2050.

2. Airports will be integral to delivering on these targets. The Jet Zero Strategy’s ‘high ambition scenario’ suggests that a raft of approaches will contribute to the sector achieving net zero emissions, with 17% of abatement coming from sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), 15% from fuel efficiency improvements and 4% coming from zero carbon aircraft (additional abatement will come from the operationalisation of the ETS and CORSIA and abatement from outside of the aviation sector).[1] With emission reductions coming from a number of different fuels and technological developments, airports are going to have to adapt to enable operators to utilise SAFs, fossil kerosene and zero carbon emission aircraft (powered using either green hydrogen or a battery) if the sector is to achieve its targets.

3. In addition to the overarching targets laid out in the Jet Zero Strategy, the government has set a further target for all airport operations in England to be zero emission by 2040, and for airports to support further reductions within the existing aviation system.[2] This will require additional investment from airports to achieve.

4. This response will largely focus on points three, 11 and 12 of the Terms of Reference on how airport expansion relates to continued compliance with climate and environment obligations. We will demonstrate how infrastructural improvements will be key to ensuring aviation’s decarbonisation through facilitating the adoption of clean aviation technologies (for example, zero carbon emission aircraft). When considering where investments into airport infrastructure are best directed, it is critical that the infrastructure needed for zero carbon emission aircraft operations are prioritised. The changes needed are projected to be significant, with the airports of the future needing to support decarbonisation via existing aircraft refuelling using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)/kerosene blended fuels, hydrogen aircraft, electric aircraft, and work in partnership with the supply chain to implement efficiency improvements.

5. As such, we recommend that investment into airports prioritise investment into infrastructure that will enable aviation’s decarbonisation, ensuring that all airports are equipped to facilitate the uptake of lower carbon solutions such as use of SAF and zero carbon emission aircraft.

Airport infrastructure for zero carbon emission flight

6.     Airport infrastructure will be central to scaling alternative, zero carbon emission aircraft that will be key to aviation’s long-term decarbonisation. Not only do zero carbon emission aircraft (i.e., those powered by hydrogen or batteries) play a role in aviation’s pathway to net zero emissions in 2050, and have the greatest potential of all alternatives to fossil fuel to lower emissions,[3] but research from the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) found that UK investment in the development of these aircraft ahead of other nations could see the UK achieving up to 19% of the global industry and securing an additional 38,000 jobs by 2050.[4] They are therefore of huge importance to both decarbonisation and green growth objectives.

7.     Ensuring that airports have the infrastructure to enable use of these aircraft will be important in providing a route to market for these technologies and ensuring that zero carbon emission aircraft can scale by providing confidence to investors and airlines that operations will be possible in the coming years. For zero carbon emission aircraft alone, the infrastructure requirements are significant due to the need to implement whole new value chains for both green hydrogen and battery electric propulsion.

8.     Airports must begin investing in the infrastructure for zero carbon emission aircraft now, in anticipation of their commercial operation in the decade leading up to 2050.[5] Facilitating a supply of green hydrogen to airports, its safe storage and distribution within airports, refuelling infrastructure, and maintenance of these necessary systems will require significant changes at airports.

9.     While this response will not consider the investment into generating the energy requirements for hydrogen powered aircraft, airports will need to consider how hydrogen is transported to them and stored on-site. It is expected that hydrogen will initially be transported to airports in a liquid form via tanker deliveries, with hydrogen liquefied off site, however as demand grows it may be transported via pipeline with on-site liquefaction.[6] In both instances, liquid hydrogen must be cryogenically stored, necessitating investment into new storage systems.[7] New systems will also be needed to distribute hydrogen around airports, with refuelling likely to initially take place via mobile fuelling bowsers.[8] Again, this is likely to change once demand grows and new liquid hydrant systems may be required, the installation of which would be more complex than for kerosene due to properties of liquid hydrogen that would require cryogenic pipelines. New processes would also be needed to retain turnaround speeds and safety requirements in comparison to existing processes used for kerosene refuelling.[9]

10.  Similar airport upgrades will be required for battery electric aircraft, with anticipated changes including updates to grid infrastructure, storage for energy procured during off-peak times from the grid, new charging stations (or battery-swapping systems) and updated maintenance and safety systems.[10] Finally, for both technologies staff training on the necessary operational and safety considerations of the new systems will be crucial.[11]

11.  Ensuring that zero carbon emission aircraft are scaled in the necessary timelines to achieve net zero aviation by 2050 will therefore require significant effort on the part of airports, as well as significant costs. Research undertaken by the World Economic Forum suggests that the upper bounds of investment into infrastructural upgrades to airports to support decarbonisation (including energy acquisition and hydrogen production) could reach $66-140 billion globally by 2050. For an intercontinental hub like Heathrow this could reach $3.9 billion up to 2050, while for a major regional airport could equate to investments of $1.3 billion. To contextualise this, capital expenditure for such airports could be equivalent to the airport terminal expansion undertaken at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, or around 20% of the cost of London Heathrow’s third runway project.[12] Given these significant costs, it is essential that investments are in the first instance made to ensure that airports are equipped to facilitate zero carbon emission flight to maximise emission reductions from the sector and best capture the green growth opportunity that zero carbon emission aviation presents.

Ensuring a supply of sustainable aviation fuels and facilitating efficiency improvements

12.  Alongside requiring the infrastructure for zero carbon emission aircraft, airports will also need to retain existing operational and refuelling infrastructure that has been used to date for kerosene refuelling, and will increasingly be blended with SAF in line with the UK’s SAF mandate. Both zero carbon emission aircraft and conventional aircraft will be operating simultaneously for years to come, with order books for Airbus and Boeing stretching to 10-15 years, and those aircraft expected to operate for a further 30 years at least. [13] This long transition timeline means that airports will require multiple systems for years to come, with necessary capacity for storage and handling of multiple fuel types. [14]

13.  Finally, attention must be given to the role that airports will play in improving airspace efficiency in partnership with airspace managers, airlines and technology providers. Facilitating optimised flight paths with be key to reducing the CO2 and non-CO2 impacts of aviation. [15] Increased complexity of operating systems – whether that be for efficiency improvements or managing multiple fuel types – is therefore set to be a key feature of airport operations going forward, and must be considered as part of plans for the future of airports.

Recommendations

14.  This response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Airport expansion and climate and nature targets has demonstrated the important role that airports will play in ensuring that aviation achieves its statutory decarbonisation targets and voluntary sector-wide commitments. Airports will be at the heart of facilitating the growth of the zero carbon emission flight sector, while continuing to supply SAFs, enable efficiency improvements and decarbonise their own operators. This will require significant investment and lead to increased complexity of operations. Therefore, we recommend that priority is given to investing into the infrastructure that will facilitate aviation’s decarbonisation.

Footnotes

1 UK Government, Jet Zero Strategy (2022)

2 UK Government, Jet Zero Strategy (2022)

3 SASHA Coalition, Why does aviation need green hydrogen to decarbonise? (2024)

4 Aerospace Technology Institute, The case for the UK to accelerate zero-carbon emission air travel (2022)

5 World Economic Forum, Target True Zero: Delivering the infrastructure for battery and hydrogen-powered flight (2023)

6 ZeroAvia, Advancing Hydrogen Aviation in 2025 – The 4 Pillars of Success (2025)

7 Arup, SASHA Hydrogen Derived Fuels for Aviation and Maritime Study (2023)

8 World Economic Forum, Target True Zero: Delivering the infrastructure for battery and hydrogen-powered flight (2023)

9 Aerospace Technology Institute, Hydrogen Infrastructure and Operations: Airports, Airlines and Airspace (2022)

10 Arup, SASHA Hydrogen Derived Fuels for Aviation and Maritime Study (2023)

11 Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, Hydrogen Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities for Airlines and Operators (2024)

12 World Economic Forum, Target True Zero: Delivering the infrastructure for battery and hydrogen-powered flight (2023)

13 Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, Hydrogen Aviation: Challenges and Opportunities for Airlines and Operators (2024)

14 Aerospace Technology Institute, Integration of Sustainable Aviation Fuels into the air transport system (2022)

15 Aerospace Technology Institute, Hydrogen Infrastructure and Operations: Airports, Airlines and Airspace (2022)