Shire Launches its First Range of Electric GSE

Shire, the aviation brand born from Belgian engineering firm M-ECS, has announced the launch of its first range of purpose-built electric tractors for baggage and cargo operations. 

Shire redefines ground support equipment (GSE) for the aviation industry and delivers electric, intelligent, and modular GSE. Purpose-built from day one and designed to evolve with future operations.

On every airport apron, hundreds of diesel tractors still drive operations - noisy, polluting, and costly to maintain. While retrofitting diesel tractors into electric offers a useful short- and medium-term bridge, these conversions are a necessary compromise: frames and drivetrains designed for combustion do not deliver the efficiency or long-term adaptability of purpose-built electric vehicles.

This reality led M-ECS (Mertens Electrification & Control Systems), a Belgian engineering company with expertise in automation, electrification, IoT, and smart systems, to create Shire in 2022. M-ECS, built its reputation by helping industries innovate and adapt to greener operations, from automating harvesting machines, over designing hybrid industrial robots, to extending the lifespan of many airport GSE through electrification with their bespoke IoT systems.

“With Shire, we bring our engineering DNA directly into aviation GSE. Retrofitting remains essential in the short term, but purpose-built electric machines are the real path to long-term efficiency, safety, and resilience,” said Toon Mertens, founder of M-ECS. 

Shire’s first range focuses on baggage and cargo tractors, a natural starting point, since these vehicles alone account for 25–30% of ground handling emissions at airports. Other GSE families are already under consideration and can be tailored to customer needs.

Shire tractors are electric by nature and smart by design. Operators can equip them with advanced options such as:

• Real-time tracking of energy use, performance, and duty cycles.
• Predictive diagnostics to anticipate failures and minimize downtime.
• Modular upgrades under development to add new functions, such as our in-house developed collision detection and avoidance system. 

Current product line

• Shire_TT22e: Electric baggage tractor with lead-acid battery (battery included). Li-ion option 50–70 kWh.
• Shire_TT22e-DC: Double-cabin (5 seats) baggage tractor, 80V 67.2 kWh Li-ion.
• Shire_TT30e: 4-ton cargo tractor, high-voltage 70 kWh Li-ion.
• Shire_TT40e: 6-ton cargo tractor, high-voltage 140 kWh Li-ion.
• Shire can also deliver a range of chargers (portable/static) from low to high power. 

Gerd van Damme, Sales Director at Shire, says, “Ground handling is a tough environment. If you don’t design equipment with the operator’s economic and practical reality in mind, the solutions will never last.”