Iberia Airport Services (IBAS), the Spanish carrier’s handling business, is to invest more than €100m in its sustainability plan.
The company aims to achieve net zero emissions in airport services by 2025. To do this, it will invest more than €100m in sustainability. Iberia has already received €14.2m of this from the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), which it will use to renew the ground equipment with which it provides airplane assistance services at 29 Spanish airports.
Equipment conversions
The renewal of equipment is one of the main pillars of the Iberia Airport Services sustainability plan, which includes more than 30 initiatives. The company will transform 80% of its mobile fleet into electrical equipment. It is also developing other fleet efficiency initiatives, such as equipment pooling (enabling different handling agents to share vehicles depending on workload and seasonality), telemetry and geopositioning, allowing the traceability and use optimisation of each piece of equipment.
Sustainable fuel
Iberia Airport Services is working with Repsol, in collaboration with Aena, to develop sustainable fuels for handling equipment. HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) is a pioneering fuel with a carbon neutral footprint that has not yet been marketed, but which Iberia Airport Services will shortly begin to test.
In addition, IBAS is assessing the possibilities of using hydrogen in its equipment, mainly as fuel for batteries. Existing technology does not allow the electrification of 100% of the fleet, so Iberia Airport Services will help its client airlines to calculate and offset any emissions.
The division is also working to improve its energy efficiency and control, so that all energy used by its equipment comes from renewable sources. For example, the equipment maintenance workshop will soon have a photovoltaic plant on its roof, which will provide clean energy to the workshop as well as being used to charge the equipment.
Image: Iberia Airport Services
