Emergency services specialist, Venari Group – which is exclusively partnered in the UK with Ziegler Group – has announced its contract to supply a UK-first hybrid aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) truck to Cranfield Airport, which is owned by Cranfield University.
Following an 18-month phase of rigorous market research and a subsequent, comprehensive tender process, Venari will supply and maintain the Ziegler Z-Class HybridDrive. It will be manufactured at Ziegler’s Giengen headquarters and then sent to West Yorkshire-based Venari for finalisation such as stowage fitment, communications instalments and livery.
Later in 2023, Cranfield Airport will have an appliance capable of being operated in three different ways: solely with electric power; with a blend of electric and combustion engine; or – in the event of protracted incidents requiring long duties – purely with a conventional, low emission Euro 6 engine.
Once the truck is produced and delivered to Cranfield Airport, Venari’s experienced team of airport rescue and firefighting truck engineers will be responsible for its servicing.
Venari Group CEO Oliver North commented, “The award from Cranfield allows Venari and Ziegler to boost not only Cranfield Airport’s decarbonising activity, but the aviation firefighting appliance sector in general. We’re very much ‘walking the walk’ in the direction that airports have requested.”
Fabian Schmidt, Product Manager ARFF vehicles at Ziegler added, “Following years of continuous development of our Z-Class, we feel confident that our new Z6 HybridDrive will prove to be a firm favourite for the UK airport fire and rescue services, not only to achieve tough environmental targets, but to improve overall operational effectiveness.”
