Air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and the environment
Safety and the improvement of safety remains the primary focus of ATM. ANSPs also recognise the need to deliver air traffic services in ways that mitigate the impact of aircraft operations on the environment. Over the last 20 years, there have been significant improvements in the environmental performance and fuel efficiency of aircraft, however, the volume of air transport services continues to grow rapidly. ANSPs will seek to deliver the capacity to handle this growth in traffic, while mitigating the effects of the growth through the more efficient provision of air navigation services.
Activities at and around airports produce noise and pollutants; aircraft en-route emit greenhouse gases. Airlines and airport operators are traditionally regarded as being responsible for these environmental impacts. However, increasingly the airlines and airports, as well as governments, non governmental organisations and pressure groups are looking to ANSPs to play their part in addressing the environmental impact of aviation.
A near-term key to finding a solution to the problem of decreasing aircraft emissions is the development of a new global air traffic management system, one which will not change current aircraft technology but create a system where existing aircraft can be flown in a more environmentally friendly and efficient way. It is clear that the current global aviation system encompasses highly-intelligent twenty-first century airborne equipment but connected to a ground infrastructure fragmented by national boundaries developed, in some cases, over 500 years ago. If we could exploit capabilities of on-board systems to provide the most environmentally efficient aircraft routings then the annual savings in emissions could potentially be substantial.
ANSPs around the world are working to shorten routes, reduce delays in the air – by improved flow management techniques – and work with their airline clients on maximising aircraft efficiencies.
The CANSO vision of environmental responsibility
ATM will fully play its part in delivering a safe and efficient aviation system that meets the needs of society while minimising negative impacts on the local and global environment. This will be achieved concurrently with the industry maintaining its significant positive social and economic contributions.
Where ANSPs are making a real difference – now
Significant advances in aircraft technology have, over the last three decades, seen typical aircraft noise levels reduce by 20 decibels and fuel consumption decrease by 65%. Progress is likely to continue, albeit at a slower rate, and the environmental impact will be more than outstripped by air traffic growth. There are further technological solutions in development but these are not expected to have a significant impact in the short term. In that context, short to medium term improvements in environmental performance will need to be delivered through operational improvements (e.g. routes and airspace structures controlled by ATC have an effect on noise, local air quality and the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted). ATM has a critical role to play in the drive towards aviation sustainability.
Strategically, states and their ANSP partners will have to reorganise their airspace architecture so flights can be planned regardless of national boundaries. The good news is that they are starting to do this The opening of new polar routes into Russian airspace has allowed aircraft to fly routes that are much shorter and more fuel efficient than previously; a New York to Hong Kong flight routed over the artic will save five hours of flight time
Airservices Australia’s “flextracks” programme enables aircraft to use the prevailing jet-stream conditions to fly more efficient routes; one airline calculated it had saved 8408 kg of fuel and 43 minutes of flying on a single service between the Middle East and Australia by diverting from the straight path to hitch a ride on the high-speed jet-streams.
Even quite small changes to airspace design can have substantial environmental benefits. In the North Atlantic Track (NAT) Random Route Westbound initiative the FAA is participating with NavCanada in a new procedure that allows aircraft to transition off the NAT structure and onto a customer preferred flight path. As a result aircraft will save an estimated three to five minutes of flight time per flight.
On 24 November 2005 Sweden’s LFV introduced a double flight route over the Baltic Sea for traffic between Europe and Asia. The flight route for Far East traffic means flight paths will be about 10-15 km shorter compared than previously; over a year this equates to about 390 000 km, saving airlines about SEK 40 million annually in fuel bills.
ANSPs around the world are working to shorten routes, reduce delays in the air – by improved flow management techniques – and work with their airline clients on maximising aircraft efficiencies. And it is not just in the wide open spaces of the upper flight levels where these savings are being made. Airports still represent the major bottleneck when it comes to capacity crunches and delays. So ANSPs are working on a new type of “green approach” called a continuous descent approach (CDA), allowing aircraft to “glide” along a steady descent path rather than power and up and down the conventional stepped approaches into most busy hubs, cutting emissions by up to 6% over conventional approaches.
With better planned approaches an airline can save between 100 and 300 kilos of fuel per flight, according to LFV and have been operationally in use at Stockholm/Arlanda since 16 March, 2006 by SAS and Falcon Air. SAS has 19 Boeing 737s equipped to carry out this type of approach. Most of these aircraft have the FMS version installed which can send unique information directly to the ATC centre-based system. It works by allowing the pilot during the final approach plan the sink profile as optimally as possible. Air traffic control centre equipment communicates with the aircraft’s FMS during green approaches; approximately 40 minutes before landing the CIES assesses the landing time which is then sent to the airport’s data base.
Again, a seemingly modest initiative has had some startling results. The use of continuous descent approaches into its main Louisville hub have resulted in 880,000 lb of fuel savings for parcels carrier UPS – a figure which will soon rise to over a million gallons. UPS has measured that its Boeing 757 aircraft are each saving around 250 gallons of fuel per flight and its widebody aircraft up to 465 gallons on every landing, using the CDA operation.
Tailored arrivals trials at San Francisco - like previous ones in Australia and the Netherlands during the past two years – show ”fuel savings from 400 lb (180 kilograms or approximately 60 gallons) to 800 lb (360 kilograms or approximately 120 gallons) per flight,” according to Boeing ATM. “The implication of these studies is that, when fully implemented, tailored arrivals could save airlines $100,000 per year in fuel costs per aircraft for flights into major airports,” said Rob Mead, the lead engineer for advanced ATM air/ground communications at Boeing Phantom Works.
In Australia, green approaches introduced in November 2001 in Oceanic and Continental airspace have been responsible for an estimated 10,800 tonnes annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions on the Brisbane Oceanic routes alone.
These are small, national initiatives which are already starting to deliver considerable savings in fuel burn. The imminent introduction of new air traffic management systems based on trans-national, rather than national, traffic flows should see these national “best-practice” efforts rolled into regional then global operating environments.
The Single European Sky programme aims to deliver a reduction of carbon dioxide per production unit of up to l2% over current levels, by delivering more efficient routes and fewer delays. The recent decision by Indonesia to trial an ADS-B surveillance system based on regional, rather than national, procedures is a further significant example; the trial will demonstrate the effectiveness of enhancing surveillance across international Flight Information Region boundaries, aiming to reduce delays and increase capacity. Once you start managing flights on a regional, rather than a national, basis then the effectiveness of the environmental protection elements in programmes such as shared civil/military airspace, collaborative decision making between ANSPs and their aircraft operator customers, integration of airports into the overall traffic management programmes rises exponentially.
ANSPs and their colleagues in government and the technology provider community are now developing programmes which will lead to some dramatic decreases in aircraft emission footprints. These are no longer mere aspirations. LFV, for example, has chosen to become “climate neutral” - this means that the organisation is now able to offer goods and services that are produced without negative impact on the climate.
CANSO ANSP members have agreed a code of conduct which acts as a “best-practice” blueprint for future operations. At the heart of all this is a new ATM philosophy – in the future ANSPs will work towards enabling (not controlling) aircraft to fly the safest, most efficient and environmentally responsible routes, providing a framework of information in which the aircraft can operate.
The CANSO Environmental Voluntary Code of Practice
for Air Navigation Service Providers
This code of practice establishes a framework within which ANSPs can seek to offset the environmental impacts of growth through our own initiatives and collaboration with other industry stakeholders. It supports ANSPs in working effectively with regulatory bodies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (ICAO/CAEP) which deals with aviation environmental issues at an international level.
The code establishes a signatory community of like-minded ANSPs that can learn from each others’ experience in environmental mitigation. It represents the first step in establishing common goals for all CANSO members to support. This framework will allow members to measure and report their progress towards these goals while acknowledging legislative and regulatory constraints and the capacity of other stakeholders to fully participate.
Structure of the Code
The code of practice identifies a number of high level goals for the signatories to strive toward, underpinned by specific commitments that will support and encourage the ATM community in achieving these goals.