Airlines use tech in green quest

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2007

Airlines are using technology, including IT, to fight global warming and cut costs.

Speaking at the ongoing World Air Transport Forum, at Cannes, in France, International Air Transport Association (IATA) director-general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said "we are setting the benchmark in environmental performance for other industries to follow.

"Airlines are leading the debate on environment, with a vision to become carbon-neutral in the medium-term and have zero carbon emissions in the long-term," he added.

African concern

The lack of effective air traffic control over Africa has long been an aviation industry bugbear. But IT has, of late, played a role in improving air safety and rolling back environmental damage, says IATA`s South African spokesman Linden Birns.

He notes that IATA, together with the South African Air Traffic and Navigation Service (ATNS), has worked with several national aviation authorities across the continent to establish and implement two new "red carpet" transcontinental air routes between SA and Europe.

"These were recently approved and are now being flown. They enable more direct routings over Africa, saving airlines significant time and fuel, saving money and reducing emissions over the continent."

In terms of technology, Birns says the implementation of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) approaches at African airports, involving the use of satellite-based navigation aids instead of ground-based equipment, has made further savings. "At Kinshasa, [in the Democratic Republic of Congo] for example, the use of GNSS is shortening the approach by six minutes of flight time."

Birns says IATA conducted a roadshow at the end of last year to prove the use of GNSS approaches throughout the SADC region. "So far, GNSS approaches have been approved, without any restrictions, at 54 airports in Africa. Eight more African airports are due to adopt GNSS approaches in coming months."

Government intransigence

Bisignani says IATA`s 240-member airlines have again endorsed a four-pillar strategy on climate change at the meeting that started Wednesday.

It commits them to:

* Invest in new technology;
* Build and use efficient infrastructure;
* Operate planes effectively; and
* Consider positive economic measures while working with governments to define an emissions trading scheme that is fair, global and voluntary.

"The strategy is not just words. We have delivered real results," says Bisignani. He says last year IATA`s fuel campaign saved eight million tons of CO2 by working with airlines on best practice in fuel management, six million tons of CO2 by shortening 350 routes and a further one million tons of CO2 through better operational procedures.

But Bisignani is unhappy with the government response to the initiative. "We cannot do it all on our own - governments must be involved," he says.

"Our biggest disappointment was with the European states. They are taking a completely political and totally irresponsible approach by unilaterally pursuing emissions trading rather than taking a global approach. This will cause diplomatic trade battles, but will do nothing for the environment," says Bisignani.

The European Union, which is about the size of the SADC, has 34 air navigation service providers, with some having exclusive jurisdiction over areas as small as Gauteng, Swaziland or Lesotho, which modern airliners cross in a matter of minutes.