Fed: Aviation on notice about contribution to climate change

AAP General News (Australia)
02-14-2007
Fed: Aviation on notice about contribution to climate change

By Peter Veness

CANBERRA, Feb 14 AAP - Getting airlines to follow more efficient flight paths could
remove 73 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, a leading aviation
expert says.

International Air Transport Association chief executive officer Giovanni Bisignani
says airlines need to see the financial benefits in cutting their carbon emissions.

"You will all be aware that our industry is taking a beating in the environmental debate,"

Mr Bisignani told a conference in Holland.

"Our critics may have lost perspective.

"But they are absolutely correct in demanding more efficiency."

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its report released a fortnight
ago, estimated there is a 12 per cent inefficiency in air traffic management globally.

Mr Bisignani said the flight path inefficiency translates to financial inefficiency.

"That 12 per cent translates into up to 73 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
and nearly $US13.5 billion ($A17.35 billion) in unnecessary fuel costs.

"Every minute of flying time that we can save reduces fuel consumption by about 62
litres and carbon dioxide emissions by 160 kilograms."

Mr Bisignani's comments come at the same time as Australia's airspace controller moves
to redraw flight paths and introduce new software which will take weather conditions into
account when drawing up daily flight paths.

Airservices Australia is introducing software called Ozops which draws up individual,
optimised flight paths for flights in Australian airspace.

A spokesman for Airservices told AAP the traffic controller was also looking at ways
of reducing emissions from planes.

The introduction of new tracking technology known as ADS-B will allow controllers to
keep better tabs on the exact location of planes and that information will then be used
to cut emissions.

Planes which arrive early at airports are traditionally asked to circle high in the
atmosphere until there is space to land. Planes circling at high altitude burn about 40-50
kilograms of fuel per minute but with ADS-B, the spokesman said, pilots will now be told
to slow down while still en route to an airport, thus avoiding the need to circle.

Airservices chief executive officer Greg Russell addressed the Dutch conference last
night Australian time. Details of his speech, which was expected to address carbon emissions,
will be released later today.

AAP pv/sb/it/sp

KEYWORD: CLIMATE FLIGHT

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