OAG Travel News

Air New Zealand will perform a demonstration flight in September to highlight the possibilities for more sustainable air travel.

In conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration and navigation services provider Airservices Australia, Air New Zealand will operate a Boeing 777 flight from Auckland to San Francisco under “optimum flight planning conditions.” The optimal flight profile should enable the aircraft to fly a more direct route, saving time and fuel and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Earlier this year the three entities formed the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE), a partnership which aims to reduce airliner fuel burn by using preferred routes across the Pacific Ocean.

The demonstration flight will be Air New Zealand's scheduled transpacific service NZ 8 on Sept. 12 and will be renamed "ASPIRE I" for the occasion. For the sake of the demonstration the flight will receive priority for take-off and landing, and will not be subject to normal restraints such as air traffic congestion control vectoring or a fixed air traffic route structure.

Air New Zealand has made saving fuel and reducing carbon emissions a major corporate goal in recent years. New Zealand’s unspoiled environment is a primary reason why it is such a popular tourist destination, and the airline has positioned itself among the nation’s leaders in an effort to preserve the nation's environment.

The ASPIRE I flight is intended show the air transport industry how much more efficient air travel can be.

Then-Deputy FAA Administrator Robert Sturgell (subsequently approved by Congress as FAA Administrator) introduced the initiative in a speech to the Aviation Leadership Summit in Singapore in February,

“ASPIRE will let us take advantage of dynamic airborne reroute programs,” said Sturgell. “These allow for airborne reroutes to take advantage of more efficient trajectories based on changing wind and weather patterns.”

The ASPIRE program is compatible with the FAA's planned Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, which aims to use satellite technology to help cut time and costs of flying. The FAA says flight delays cost $9.4 billion each year.

Earlier this year, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) invited Air New Zealand to participate in its "tailored oceanic arrivals" program. This technology allows controllers to route aircraft around possible hold-ups, such as bad weather.

The FAA has also conducted trials of continuous descent approaches at SFO. These allow aircraft to make smooth and continuous descents, rather than descending to intermediate levels specified by controllers and holding at each intermediate altitude, as current air traffic procedures require. Air New Zealand says CDAs save fuel and reduce aircraft noise for those on the ground.

In the first six months of Air New Zealand's cooperation with SFO the airline saved 22,000 kilograms of fuel, said Captain David Morgan, Air New Zealand's general manager of airline operations and chief pilot. Every kilogram of fuel saved results in 3.15 kilograms less of carbon dioxide emitted, so Air New Zealand's six-month fuel saving at SFO produced a 69.3-metric tonne reduction in CO2 emissions. Reducing fuel burn also saves the airline money, all the more so in today's high-cost fuel market.

In June Air New Zealand was one of three major airlines to join a Honeywell biofuel-development subsidiary in forming the Algal Biomass Organization. Algae has emerged as a likely third-generation biofuel that could help solve the aviation industry's long-term fuel needs.

Among Air New Zealand’s other environmentally oriented projects is a reforestation project funded by the airline’s Environmental Charitable Trust, which is supported by donations from customers.

Source: By Brad Tucker, Aviation.com