Ground Handling Vehicles & Machinery at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to Run on Neste MY Renewable Diesel

17 January 2023

From January 2023 onwards, all diesel-powered ground handling vehicles and machinery at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands will be using Neste MY Renewable Diesel™.

There are around 1,900 ground handling vehicles with a diesel engine at Schiphol airport, varying from standard cars, vans, pushback tractors and trucks to more specialized ground support like conveyor belt loaders, pallet or container loaders, catering high lifts, aircraft fuel dispensers, passenger steps and ground power units. 

KLM Equipment Services is the fuel supplier for all vehicles and machinery in Schiphol with a fuel station at the airport as well as three fuel trucks operating seven days a week. Neste MY Renewable Diesel is supplied to KES via Neste’s distribution partner EG Group.

“At the moment, 40% of the motorized equipment at the airport runs on electricity. And that number will increase over the coming years. However, for a number of specialist heavy vehicles, it is a technical challenge to develop a battery with sufficient capacity that can also be charged quickly enough. Using Neste MY Renewable Diesel is therefore a good solution currently,” says Paul Feldbrugge, responsible for the Zero Emission Programme within KES.

“KLM Equipment Services is an existing customer of EG Group in the field of lubricants. Now, this cooperation is further expanded with Neste MY Renewable Diesel. We are very pleased with KES’s choice to use Neste-produced renewable diesel as a solution at the airport ground and that EG Group can contribute to making this happen,” says Rob Wemekamp, B2B Sales Manager, EG Group.

“This is a significant step on the way towards a zero-emission ground operation in 2030. The vehicles for which there are currently no electric or hydrogen alternatives available can run on renewable diesel. Everyone on the airside, where the loads are moved to or from the aircraft, is making use of it, including Aviapartner, dnata, Menzies, Swissport, KLM Ground Services and Viggo. We’re pleased about that. It’s also important that we all continue to expand the number of electric vehicles at Schiphol. We are also going to considerably expand the number of charging stations,” says Denise Pronk, responsible for sustainability at Royal Schiphol Group, operating the Schiphol airport.

“With KLM Equipment Services now starting to use our Neste MY Renewable Diesel for all diesel-powered ground handling vehicles and machinery at the airport, our contribution to Schiphol’s sustainability targets significantly increases. With Neste MY Renewable Diesel, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by as much as 75 to 95%* when emissions over the fuel’s life cycle are compared with fossil diesel. Companies can reduce their climate emissions in an instant by just changing to Neste MY Renewable Diesel,” says Peter Zonneveld, Vice President of Sales Renewable Road Transportation at Neste. “With our renewables production capacity increasing to 5.5 million tons by the end of 2023 and further to 6.8 million tons by the end of 2026, we are well-equipped to help our customers around the world to make the switch to more sustainable solutions,” Peter Zonneveld continues. 

Neste MY Renewable Diesel™ is produced from 100% renewable raw materials. It is a drop-in fuel, the use of which does not require any modifications to existing vehicles or machines, energy systems, or fuel distribution infrastructures. 

Schiphol is one of the airports in Europe in which Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel™, a more sustainable alternative to fossil jet fuel, is available. The use of Nestle-produced SAF reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%** over the fuel’s life cycle, compared to using fossil jet fuel.

Neste in brief

Neste creates solutions for combating climate change and accelerating a shift to a circular economy. We refine waste, residues and innovative raw materials into renewable fuels and sustainable feedstock for plastics and other materials. We are the world’s leading producer of sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel and developing chemical recycling to combat the plastic waste challenge. We aim at helping customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with our renewable and circular solutions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030. Our ambition is to make the Porvoo oil refinery in Finland the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030. We are introducing renewable and recycled raw materials such as liquefied waste plastic as refinery raw materials. We have committed to reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035, and we will reduce the carbon emission intensity of sold products by 50% by 2040. We also have set high standards for biodiversity, human rights and supply chain. We have consistently been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies. In 2021, Neste’s revenue stood at EUR 15.1 billion.

Read more: neste.com

KES in brief

KLM Equipment Services is an independent subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. We use our expertise and experience in the field of Ground Support Equipment for large and small players in the aviation industry. From our home base at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, we take care of the sale, rental and maintenance of all types of vehicles and equipment.

KLM Equipment Services takes care of the maintenance of equipment that is used during the handling of an aircraft on the ground. GSE is the indispensable link in all logistics processes at an airport. In total, we maintain around 1,500 motorized and 750 non-motorized vehicles from KLM Ground Services, KLM Cargo, KLM Engineering & Maintenance, KLM Catering Services, Martinair and Transavia, among others.

In addition to maintenance, KLM Equipment Services also supplies vehicles with fuel. This is done at the fixed filling station on the G-buffer or with our own tank trucks. KLM Equipment Services’ environmental department is responsible for cleaning up spills of hazardous liquids at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Schiphol in brief

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol welcomed 52.5 million passengers in 2022 and processed 1.4 million tonnes of cargo. With its 313 direct destinations all over the world, Schiphol offers one of the best destination and frequency networks in Europe. This makes Amsterdam Airport Schiphol one of the most important mainports in Europe and one of the two European hubs of Air France-KLM and the SkyTeam alliance. Schiphol is an important contributor to the Dutch and regional economies. 

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is part of the Royal Schiphol Group, an enterprise that operates airports in the Netherlands, conducts international activities and participates in airports abroad. Royal Schiphol Group’s mission is connecting your world.

EG Group in brief

EG Group is a global petrol station and convenience retailer and has a diverse portfolio of more than 6,000 petrol stations in 10 countries across Europe, North America and Australia. EG Group controls the procurement, storage and distribution of fuels and lubricants through its depots and own transportation.

EG Group is a certified distributor of Neste. In doing so, EG Group is supervised by strict audits to ensure the environmental aspects of our operations, product and services. This also allows EG Group to safeguard KLM’s strict regulations. Because EG Group controls the entire supply chain, it provides its customers with the right service, services and advice around CO₂ reduction through the use of HVO100.