Lufthansa Systems launched the latest version of a fuel burn measurement tool designed to help identify airline cost savings. The Lido electronic Aircraft Performance Monitoring (eAPM) system provides real-time aircraft performance data to a web-based system.
Marc Szepan, senior vice-president, airline operations solutions says: “The issue of fuel burn is not being tackled by the industry. In Europe fuel accounts for 25% of an airline’s direct costs, here in Asia that figure is somewhere between 35-40%. For Asian airlines the difference is labour costs.
“And certainly while the industry focuses on creating greener aircraft and technologies that require large investments we have a product, that if used properly, can save money and reduce emissions through intelligent IT,” he says.
Lido eAPM is by no means a magic bullet. It only passes on useful information about individual aircraft performance. It is then down to the airlines to act on this information. “For example, if Lufthansa was to fly from Frankfurt to Moscow and our eAPM shows the aircraft is 1% more efficient than the manufacturer stated averages – this could save 250kg of fuel. It is estimated that 1kg of fuel creates 3.2kg of carbon monoxide so there is an instant reduction in emissions,” says Szepan. While 250kg for a single aircraft is relatively little, it becomes a significant amount across 11million flights a year.
On average to install the system on a per aircraft basis costs between $2,000-3,000, Szepan says. “Why spend large amounts of money on new aircraft, when comparatively cheaply you can cut costs and increase efficiency. With some aircraft there may be dents that reduce aerodynamic efficiency, and while these are acceptable defects they can impact fuel economy,” he adds.
Effectively the new Lido eAPM service does allow an airline to minimise fuel carried within the framework of FAA and JAA regulations. Both the FAA and JAA state that to allow ETOPS, an aircraft must be fitted with some form of performance monitoring. Lufthansa Systems says the authorities accept a continuous monitoring of each single aircraft in the fleet as a precondition to operate based on corrected aircraft-specific performance factors.
Therefore the airline saves the extra fuel that otherwise would have to be required to conform to regulatory requirements. Lufthansa Systems offers the airlines a full-service package, or the airline can elect to process the data through their own IT infrastructure networks.
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Source: Flight Daily News
