Flight Sciences, which specialises in helping airlines reduce their fuel bills by improving efficiency, expects to sign contracts with major carriers later this year, as part of its efforts to expand its client base in Europe and Asia.
The US company recently completed a five-month project with Austrian Airlines, which reduced annual fuel use by around 8%.
The fuel savings were achieved by means of aircraft-weight and aerodynamic-drag reductions, engine improvements and changes to flight- and ground-operations procedures, although Flight Sciences declines to reveal specific details, for competitive reasons.
"We looked at everything from tyres to the type of paint job the aircraft have, and came up with recommendations for specific changes," says Flight Sciences president Robert Callahan.
For example, it is known that the amount of aerodynamic drag produced by each aircraft increases by around 1% with every 6,000 flying hours, says Callahan, because of the degradation of items such as passenger-door seals and paint. "We helped them devise a computer program to monitor the deterioration of the aircraft on a real-time basis," he adds.
As much as 50% of the degradation can be recovered, according to the airframe manufacturers. "Austrian was able to spot aircraft with problems and make corrections," Callahan says.
The majority of the changes were not expensive to implement, Callahan claims. "Of the 22 recommendations approved, there were probably only two to three areas where they had to spend money to realise that saving," he says.
Callahan expects to sign contracts with Swissair and an unidentified Asian carrier by August. The company's previous customers in Europe include British Airways.
Source: Flight International
