An aircraft fuelling tanker manufacturer is taking a lead on driving safer and more efficient on-airport fuelling technology
As well as Goldhofer, also on the shared Flite Line stand at the expo in Las Vegas was Esterer, which has been represented by Flite Line in North America since last year (Flite Line also represents the likes of Hitzinger, Power Stow, Charlatte, Zodiac Aerospace and CHEP, all of which are players in the aviation industry).
Esterer has sold into the US military in the past, but has not yet gained a foothold in the North American region’s civil GSE market; hence its decision to choose Flite Line to represent its capability – well-established in other markets, such as the European continent – across the Atlantic from its Helsa, Germany base.
Esterer is well respected as a supplier of fuel trucks to operators across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, so it is perhaps a surprise that it hasn’t up till now broken into the North American market in a big way. Indeed, the company was established as long ago as 1955 and built its first aircraft refueller in the 1970s. But, says Julia Esterer, the company’s managing director: “Things are done very differently out here [in the US]. Nevertheless, we are confident that we have good solutions that will be attractive to this market.”
The company is known for its high-end trucks. Its USP, says Julia Esterer, is that “we do everything ourselves, we don’t outsource anything, we control the whole process.” It buys in fuel truck chassis, from Mercedes or a number of other manufacturers as preferred and perhaps stipulated by the end customer, but then adds its own-manufactured fuel tank and fuelling systems and components.
Its competitors – there are perhaps only four or five other fuel truck manufacturers who are active outside their own region – tend to buy in all the various component units that go to make up a modern, large fuel truck and then perform final assembly, she says.
All Esterer’s fuel trucks are customised according to the requirements of the end user – customers like Shell, Air BP, TOTAL and Saudi Arabia’s APSCO. However, they are based on standardised, modular parts, and so remain recognisable as Esterer vehicles and offer ease of training and maintenance/repair for users of fleets of different Esterer models.
At its plant in Helsa, near Kassel in Germany, Esterer builds approximately 350 fuelling vehicles – road tankers, rigid tanker refuellers, tank trailers (for when a large amount of fuel is to be dispensed), semi-trailer refuellers, and dispensers – each year, says Nico Hanemann, head of the aviation department at the company. And it has sold about 20,000 of them in total over the years. The various fuel tanker types that Esterer produces offer a number of features that its rival manufacturers don’t have, he observes. One distinct advantage, for example, is the low-profile option of tanker that Esterer offers.
A low-profile tank allows the vehicle to drive directly under the wing of an aircraft, enabling the operator to fuel directly into the aircraft from below. This is safer for the operator, and also allows a heavier fuelling line to be used, thus speeding up the fuelling process.
An innovation of which the company is very proud is its e-refuelling technology, which enables the vehicle’s driver/operator to use an on-board electric battery to power the fuelling process.
Therefore, the vehicle’s engine, usually used for that function, can be switched off. This has significant benefits, says Hanemann, not least in terms of saving money on fuel, lower emissions, much less noise, lower cost and even faster refuelling. The first e-refuelling vehicle went into operation (with Shell) at Germany’s Stuttgart Airport in June this year and this option is likely to be a big draw in North America, Julia Esterer believes.
