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About ASPIRE
The air transportation industry is essential for future economic growth and development, trade and commerce, cultural exchange and understanding among peoples and nations. Today it provides 32 million direct, indirect, and induced jobs worldwide. Aircraft carry approximately 40% of the value of all world trade. In 2007, more travellers than ever before, over 2.2 billion people flew on the world's scheduled air carriers, with predictions of 9 billion passengers by 2025. In the Asia Pacific region, the rapid movement of people and materials provided by aviation will be crucial to continued economic growth and development over the next couple of decades.
The aviation sector has a long and distinguished record of environmental achievement. It currently represents 2-3% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Technological advancement has significantly reduced aircraft emissions on a per passenger basis over the last 30 years, and we are committed to improving on this record. But, we face a real challenge in the Asia Pacific region as air transport activity is expected to continue to grow steadily throughout the region.
The Federal Aviation Administration, Airservices Australia, and Airways New Zealand have been at the forefront of technology and procedure development for numerous advanced air navigation service enhancements in the oceanic environment that are already reducing emissions on individual flights. The maturity of the region's fleet and route structure and the demonstrated willingness of airlines, industry and governments to work together present a valuable opportunity to showcase the region's leadership in aviation emissions reductions on a global stage.
To that end, we are pleased to announce the creation of the Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) Partnership. Under ASPIRE, the FAA, Airservices Australia and Airways New Zealand, as the air navigation service providers, will aim to work closely with governments, airlines and other air navigation service providers in the region, to:
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accelerate the development and implementation of operational procedures to reduce the environmental footprint for all phases of flight on an operation by operation basis, from gate to gate;
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facilitate world-wide interoperability of environmentally friendly procedures and standards;
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capitalize on existing technology and best practices;
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develop shared performance metrics to measure improvements in the environmental performance of the air transport system; and
- provide a systematic approach to ensure appropriate mitigation actions with short, medium and long-term results.
We have committed to move forward to foster implementation of this program along key Asian and South Pacific routes and welcome participation from other key stakeholders as we proceed. We believe aggressive action to make real new concepts of operation and take advantage of innovations in aircraft and air traffic management technology are crucial if aviation is to exercise its proper stewardship of the environment. We look forward to regularly reporting our progress to the global aviation community in hopes that others may benefit from our collective efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the aviation sector.
Other web sites with ASPIRE information :
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Greg Russell |
Robert Sturgell |
Ashley Smout |
