Airlines in Reduced Emission Transatlantic Flights

An airline has made history by becoming the first US commercial carrier to trial a whole series of environmentally friendly aircraft operating procedures whilst in the air. Its flight occurred just hours after the first ever flight of this kind, which involved a European airline.

The US flight featured an American Airlines Boeing 767-300 twin-engined airliner and took place between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Miami International airports. It represented one component of the wider AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) scheme and, as such, was performed within the context of a regularly-scheduled flight.

Reducing Aviation CO2 Emissions

The aim of its pioneering 7 April 2010 flight involved reducing aviation CO2 emissions associated with commercial airliner flights through cutting down on the amount of fuel burnt, American Airlines (AA) said.

The flight began with a single-engined taxi performed between the aircraft’s terminal bay in Paris and the runway, and again between the Miami runway and its bay there while, whilst in the air, the 767 flew an optimised route over the Atlantic.

“It is critical that the aviation industry work with our air traffic control partners to demonstrate the benefits of NextGen technology today,” AA’s Executive Vice President of Operations, Bob Reding, stated in a company media release. “By implementing this technology as quickly as possible, we can make real and meaningful strides to reduce our impact on the environment, increase system capacity and reduce air traffic delays,” he added.

The 7 April American Airlines enviro-flight coincided with the first flight of Solar Impulse - a new solar-powered aircraft. Covered in photovoltaic panels, Solar Impulse is set to fly around the world in 2010 in a demonstration of the potential of renewable energy-based technologies within the aviation industry.

Aircraft Carbon Emissions

While American Airlines was the first US carrier to carry out a commercial aircraft flight with environmental aspects implemented from engine start-up to engine-shut down, the first carrier overall to do this was Air France, whose own energy-efficient, aircraft carbon emissions-reducing flight occurred one day earlier on 6 April.

During this voyage, a four-engined Boeing 747 was used on the same scheduled route between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Miami International and, said Air France, represented “the very first transatlantic flight optimized from start to finish to reduce noise and emissions levels.”

According to statistics issued by Air France, CO2 emissions during its flight were reduced by up to nine tonnes, and as many of 3 tonnes of fuel were saved by having the aircraft spend less time taxiing between the French/US airport terminals and runways, having it climb continuously from take off without levelling off, having it reach a peak optimum cruising altitude and having it descend into Miami at a constant rate.

A further benefit was noise pollution levels, which were reported to have dropped by seven decibels.

CO2 Emission Reductions: Flights

Should Air France’s tactics be adopted across its long-haul fleet where services between Europe and the US are concerned, it could be expected to achieve total annual CO2 emission reductions on flights of 135,000 tonnes, the airline added.

As far as AA is concerned, its flight data statistics will shortly be published, allowing further insight into the ability of airlines to carry out environmentally friendly commercial flights, and the success with which they can achieve them.

Enviro News will present further coverage of this subject as future facts emerge.