There may be a factory at Groningen Airport Eelde to assemble hydrogen aircraft. The Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker Next Gen is investigating whether it can establish such a factory at the airport.
Fokker wants to bring a new type of aircraft onto the market in 2035. About 150 devices must be produced per year, half of which in the Netherlands. Fokker is looking at Groningen Airport Eelde, because the airport is located in a region where a lot of hydrogen is used. The company expects the arrival of the factory to create 1,900 full-time jobs by 2035.
There are still about fifteen to twenty hectares of industrial estate available on the airport site. According to Fokker CEO Juriaan Kellerman, the arrival of the factory would be a “nice and logical step” to build the aircraft in the “first official Hydrogen Valley in Europe, so in the heart of hydrogen developments in the Northern Netherlands”.
Last month, various parties from the energy and aviation sectors, including Fokker, signed a partnership to provide hydrogen infrastructure to and at Groningen Airport Eelde. At the same time, research is being conducted into the safe logistics handling of hydrogen aircraft.