- Airport ground services and cargo handler Swissport has committed to investing €1.5 billion over the next five years in new electrified vehicles and renewable energy.
- With over 25% of its fleet already fully-electric globally, the firm is hoping to push that figure up further, working towards a target of 55% electric ground service equipment by 2032.
- To enable this, Swissport will also work with its airport partners to ensure the necessary power supply and charging infrastructure is in place to support the electrified rollout.
Swissport plans to further electrify its airport ground equipment
With Swissport operating in over 276 airports across 45 countries, it has the chance to make a major difference to electrification amongst airport ground vehicles on a global scale. With this new significant investment, electric variants of equipment such as baggage tractors, passenger steps, and aircraft pushback tugs will see increased deployment.
Earlier this year, Swissport already mandated that any certain new ground support equipment must be purchased in fully-electric form. By 2027, it hopes to only purchase electric ground support equipment, and as older equipment reaches the end of its serviceable life, the proportion of EVs used on the ground will continue to rise.
Some airports around the world are already seeing very strong levels of ground equipment electrification. Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, for example, has had all of its support vehicles fully-electric since February this year. In the UK, Swissport has also doubled its electric ground support equipment fleet over the last two years across four major airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton.
Warwick Brady, President & CEO of Swissport International, commented:
“We are delivering on our sustainability commitments with concrete actions. This investment in eco-tech is a decisive step and reflects our industry-leading position on sustainability and innovation. Over the next five years we will be building the world’s largest electric GSE fleet. Our strong commitment to clean energy also supports our airline customers’ climate goals by helping to reduce global supply chain emissions.”
