ASPIRE Annual Report: ‘Green’ flight test results released

The Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) partnership group have released their inaugural Annual Report - proving the aviation industry is serious about reducing its impact on the environment and improving on current best practice.

Airways New Zealand, Airservices Australia and the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States are the founding members of the initiative created in February 2008 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation activities in the region through technological innovation and best practice air traffic management.

Since then, the group has undertaken a series of three Trans-Atlantic test flights in partnership with Qantas, Air New Zealand and United Airlines, to demonstrate and measure the emission reductions and fuel savings achievable through the use of existing efficiency procedures.

“ASPIRE demonstrates that when several efficient air traffic procedures are integrated and applied to a single flight, we see the potential for reductions in delays, fuel usage and emissions. These procedures will come to represent air traffic services in the NextGen system,” said Hank Krakowski, Chief Operation Officer, Federal Aviation Administration.

The first ASPIRE Annual Report highlights each of the ‘green’ flights whose results will now be used in establishing a baseline for air traffic management performance and carbon emissions. The report also demonstrates the very real benefits of increasing global collaboration between air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and outlines a forward work plan. 

“Through collaboration, the FAA [the US Federal Aviation Administration] Airservices Australia and Airways NZ have become world-leaders in developing initiatives which help airlines in their quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ASPIRE is a tangible example of the willingness of airlines, industry and governments to work together to reduce aviation emissions on a global scale” said Ashley Smout, CEO, Airways New Zealand.

Following on from the huge success of the ‘green’ flights, ASPIRE recently won the prestigious Jane’s ATC Global Award, in recognition of its ground-breaking potential to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, beating out a highly competitive international field in the process.

Within the industry ASPIRE’s reputation continues to grow with several more ANSPs and airlines expressing interest in the program. Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) will be the first new member to join the group in October this year with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) expected to follow in February 2010.

The ASPIRE group have pledged to continue to expand their program of work to support future gains for the environment including adding additional city pairs to other parts of Asia and the South Pacific through regional working groups.

“ASPIRE is our commitment to ensuring the very best environmental stewardship along these Asian and South Pacific routes. We believe aggressive action to ‘make real’ new concepts of operation and take advantage of innovations in aircraft and air traffic management technology are absolutely crucial,” said Greg Russel, CEO, Airservices Australia.

PDF copy of Results (800kb)

Ends

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ASPIRE (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions) is a partnership in which the FAA, Air Services Australia and Airways New Zealand, as the air navigation service providers, works closely with governments, airlines and other air navigation service providers in the Asia Pacific region, to:

• 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;
• facilitate world-wide interoperability of environmentally friendly procedures and standards;
• capitalize on existing technology and best practices;
• 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.

As part of the current program, ASPIRE is also developing a fuel and emission reduction metrics model.  This model will be used to establish the reductions already made through the implementation of reduced separation standards (such as 30nm oceanic enroute and 1,000ft reduced vertical separation), optimized arrivals and user preferred routes.  The model will also be used to determine fuel and emission impact of new operation procedures and separations, an as such will form part of the business case for their introduction.

Learn more about ASPIRE

For Further Information please contact:

Nikki Waghorn
Communications Manager
Ph: (03) 358 1500

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