2023-09-24 05:30:17
Lonate Pozzolo (Italy) (AFP) – Climate crisis, expensive oil: airlines are not escaping the imperative of sobriety and are educating their pilots to avoid wasting kerosene on a daily basis, but not to the detriment of safety.
Air transport emits less than 3% of global CO2, but is singled out because only a small minority uses it. And its effects on warming are likely greater because it also produces nitrogen oxides and condensation trails.
Despite an environment constrained by aircraft technology, air traffic control or the weather, carriers have several levers which, together, enable notable gains.
Among these “eco-piloting” solutions: turn on a single engine during ground movement phases and finely manage the deployment of the landing gear or flaps increasing the surface area of the wings at low speed.
The companies’ industrial partners help them model the most efficient flight plans possible. Airbus equips its planes with the “Cost Index” system, similar to an automobile “eco” button, but much more sophisticated, making it possible to arbitrate between flight duration and consumption.
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Another illustration is the more fluid “continuous approaches” to airports. EasyJet has thus obtained a review of routes in Nice-Côte d’Azur and is campaigning for an improvement in the efficiency of air traffic control via the “single European sky” which could save 10% in consumption, the director explains to AFP. general of the British company for France and the Netherlands, Bertrand Godinot.
The key word remains flight safety, warns Federico Ercules, pilot and instructor at the easyJet training center near Milan (Italy): “it is only when we are 100% sure that safety is not compromised that we begin to make the most efficient flight possible.
Each small measure may only save 10 kg of kerosene out of three tonnes consumed during a 1,000 km journey, “but in fact, with the number of flights that easyJet operates, it will save us tonnes and tons of fuel,” he demonstrates. EasyJet estimates that eco-piloting allows it to reduce its annual emissions by 2.5%.
The company, which published a year ago a detailed roadmap towards “net zero emissions” of CO2, the objective of the entire aviation sector for 2050, has reduced its emissions per passenger per kilometer by “more than 30%”. over the last 20 years, and wants to reduce them again “by 35% by 2035”, recalls Mr. Godinot.
It and its European low-cost competitors (Ryanair, Wizz Air, Transavia, etc.) are engaged in the gradual renewal of their fleet with latest generation aircraft, Airbus A320neo or Boeing 737 MAX. EasyJet, which expects around a hundred new “neos” by 2028, also supports the Airbus hydrogen aircraft program, promised for entry into service in 2035.
The main international association of airlines, Iata, has been conducting audits since 2005 to identify aspects of operations that can be improved, achieving on average kerosene savings of 4.4% per airline.
A measure “good for the environment and good for profitability”, according to the organization whose members spend between a quarter and a third of their operating costs on fuel.
© AFP
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