August 27, 2025 [Exolum]- Exolum has been awarded the contract for the construction, operation, connection and maintenance of the new fuel storage and distribution terminal at Dusseldorf Airport, Germany. The company will invest nearly €70 million in the project, with construction scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2026. The contract was signed at the offices of the airport’s public operator, Flughafen Dusseldorf GmbH (FDG).
The new facility will replace the two current storage plants and increase capacity to 9,000 m³, 41% more than at present. This will significantly increase security of supply while enabling greater use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and sulphur-free kerosene. The company will operate the terminal for 20 years, extendable to 25, after which the infrastructure will become the property of FDG.
The plant is scheduled to start operating in the second quarter of 2028. It will then be connected to the railway network, so that from the end of 2029 onwards, most of the fuel will no longer be transported by road but by train, a more environmentally friendly alternative. This will also enable supplies to be sourced from more distant refineries, such as the SAF production plants in Rotterdam. This will reduce CO₂ emissions, ease the burden on the road network and increase efficiency in supply, loading and unloading operations.
According to Javier Goñi, CEO at Exolum: “Exolum aims to drive its growth in Germany by guaranteeing a reliable, efficient and top-quality supply forDusseldorf Airport. Our company brings extensive know-how and solid experience in terminal management at dozens of airports across Europe and the Americas, which we are now putting at the service ofDusseldorfand the airport’s users. In addition, the new terminal will facilitate the supply of SAF, which must represent 6% of the total by 2030, in line with the European ReFuelEU directive”.
Lars Redeligx, CEO of Dusseldorf Airport, says: “Our goal is to be among the best airports in Europe in our category in terms of quality, efficiency and, of course, sustainability. To achieve this, we need strong, forward-thinking partners with a high level of technical expertise, such as Exolum. Thanks to the new plant, we will be able to access sustainable fuels from completely new sources and replace thousands of tanker trucks that currently arrive by road and motorway each year, transferring that volume to rail transport.”
Dusseldorf airport, with more than 20 million passengers annually, is the main airport in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, which includes cities such as Cologne, Bonn and Dortmund. It is Germany’s most populous area, with 10 million inhabitants, and one of the main economic and financial centres of Central Europe.
