Airport infrastructure sizing for a regional electric aviation network

Electric aircraft will soon be introduced to regional markets and airport operators will need to provide the necessary charging infrastructure to enable their operations. Most regional airports lack the grid connection to support fleet charging and a recent push to reduce emissions in the energy mix that sees national power grids struggling calls for a grid-independent and sustainable solution for these airports. This paper introduces a framework for the sizing of a system for on-site energy generation and storage in support of electric flight operations for a regional aviation network. Specifically, it shows how the properties of the flight network can be leveraged for the strategic sizing of the electric infrastructure for a case study on the Dutch Leeward Antilles, highlighting airport specific requirements that arise from considering the air transport and energy system as a whole. Results with rough cost estimations for the infrastructure components show that installing energy and charging infrastructure at every airport in the flight network leads to a marginal cost decrease compared to a selective strategy where infrastructure is only installed at few airports. This latter case is also shown to have repercussions on infrastructure decisions on every other airport in the network. On the other hand, adapting the battery size of the aircraft in the fleet to the flight network requirements can lead to a significant decrease of up to 17% in total infrastructure costs.