Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore are set to join Airservices Australia, Airways New Zealand and the US Federal Administration in the partners' Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (Aspire).
JCAB will join the group in October, while Singapore's CAA is likely to become a member in February 2010, say the partners. "Continued growth of the partnership is one of the stated goals in the Aspire strategic plan, with the intended result: a collaborative network of partners across the Asia and Pacific region dedicated to world's best practice in air traffic management and environmental stewardship," say Aspire members. Additional work programmes are being developed with the expansion of the Aspire group to other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
The Aspire agreement was signed by Airservices, Airways NZ and the FAA in February 2008, with the aim of accelerating the developing and implementation of operational procedures to reduce aviation's environmental footprint for all phases of flight, from gate to gate.
Last year three trans-Pacific demonstration flights were conducted by Air New Zealand, Qantas and United Airlines to demonstrate and measure the emission reductions and fuel savings achievable through the use of existing efficiency procedures. The three flights resulted in total fuel savings of 17,200kg (38,000lb) and emissions reduction of 54,200kg, according to the Aspire annual report.
The results of the flights will now be used to establish a baseline for ATM performance and carbon emissions. The group has started developing the "ideal flight" benchmark metric to demonstrate the best-case fuel and emissions scenario and create a set of targets for improvement at each phase of flight.
Source: Flight International
