Britain’s aviation industry comes together to turn evening Heathrow to Edinburgh service into UK’s first perfect flight

Every factor within the journey – from pushback from the stand and taxiing to an optimised flight profile and continuous descent approach – was planned to achieve minimal emissions and delay.

Data from the 19.30 British Airways Airbus A321 BA1462 (callsign Shuttle 8V) will now be gathered and analysed, together with air traffic control and airport information, to understand the benefits and any points we can learn to inform future airspace design and ATC operations.

Initial feedback suggests around 350kg of fuel was saved against the normal fuel consumption for that flight. This represents a saving of over 10% of normal fuel consumption and equates to almost 1 tonne of CO2 emissions saved. The flight time was an impressive 48 minutes, with off blocks at Heathrow to engine shutdown at Edinburgh being 63 minutes.

The original idea was proposed by NSL’s Andy Sampson and Kel Kirkland during a ‘Dragon’s Den’-style emissions saving competition at NATS’ ATM Environmental Awareness Course in July 2009. As finalists in the competition, the team were challenged to bring the concept to life and make it happen.

A team effort
NATS got BA involved and we then worked with BAA at Heathrow and Edinburgh to achieve this landmark flight. Kel said: “Unlocking each individual link in the chain on a single flight is not easy. Everyone has had a part to play.

“We can’t expect to see the “perfect flight” replicated day in, day out but we have demonstrated it is possible and we can work towards it in the long-term.”

The full planning and organising relied on help and commitment from Heathrow (Phil Layton), Terminal Control (Andrew Burke), Area Control (Adrian Smith), Prestwick Centre (Iain MacKenzie) and Edinburgh (Steve Wilson).

Andy Sampson added: “On the day, we had to be conscious of the prevailing traffic situation, but all the operational staff at Heathrow, Swanwick, Prestwick and Edinburgh worked really hard to make a success of this and to facilitate the unique profile of the flight.”

Andrew Burke responding to the initial results said, “I’m really pleased that all the effort has paid off. 10% fuel saving is a great outcome.”

NATS, BA and BAA are all members of Sustainable Aviation, the industry coalition on environmental matters, and will share information from the flight with the rest of the coalition to support its aim of reducing aircraft emissions to 2000 levels by 2050. The flight data will also be valuable in calibrating NATS in-house emissions assessment tool developed by Operational Analysis.

The flight trial builds on the “Towards the Perfect Flight” video released in June which highlights some of the environmental principles that were put into practice during this trial flight. Both projects form part of the wider programme of work being progressed through the NATS-chaired Sustainable Aviation Operational Improvements Group.