Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has completed Europe's first ever commercial transatlantic "green approach", designed to reduce significantly the amount of fuel used during arrival and approach compared to standard procedures.
SAS Flight SK 904, an Airbus A330-300 carrying 260 passengers, landed at Stockholm Arlanda from New York Newark precisely at its 6.24am estimated time of arrival, following a successful Advanced Continuous Descent Approach (A-CDA) on 8 December.
The optimised landing approach, conducted with partners Stockholm Arlanda airport, Airbus and the Swedish civil aviation authority, employed the aircraft's flight management system (FMS) to fly the aircraft at idle thrust from top of descent through to the final stage of the approach.
The procedure also applied four-dimensional trajectory technology, exchanging data with air traffic control which managed traffic flow using precision positioning and time guidance, known as Required Time of Arrival (RTA), through to the runway threshold.
Combined, these features create an optimal flight profile which increases the efficiency of air traffic management and saves fuel, thus reducing greenhouse gas and noise emissions.
The transatlantic green approach is estimated to save approximately 150kg (330lb) of aircraft fuel and 470kg of carbon dioxide per landing and builds on SAS's experience of more than 2,000 A-CDAs using its Boeing 737 fleet in Sweden.
"The approach carried out at Arlanda was in fact very easy for us pilots. The aircraft's FMS was automatically flying the whole approach routeing and the passengers perceived the approach as nothing other than smooth and quiet," says Sigmund Lockert, Scandinavian's Airbus 340/330 fleet chief pilot and first officer on the flight. He was in the cockpit with captain Leif Hansson and relief first officer Leif Almtorp.
SAS will now test further green approaches on transatlantic flights from Chicago and New York to Stockholm arriving on off-peak weekend slots.
The SAS initiative will provide invaluable data to support the emissions and noise reduction program AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions), a joint initiative between the European Commission and the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
