Partnership with AIRE programme
The Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE) is a programme designed to improve energy efficiency and lower engine emissions and aircraft noise in cooperation with the FAA. The SESAR JU is responsible for its management from a European perspective.
Under this initiative ATM stakeholders work collaboratively to perform integrated flight trials and demonstrations validating solutions for the reduction of CO2 emissions for surface, terminal and oceanic operations to substantially accelerate the pace of change.
The strategy is to produce constant step-wise improvements, to be implemented by each partner in order to contribute to reaching the common objective. The programme will be further expanded in 2010.
In 2009, the SESAR JU has conducted more than 1000 flight trials in real conditions with 18 partners:
Collaboration on the ground and in the air
In AIRE trials for green surface as well as terminal and oceanic procedures are presently being conducted. Sometimes outcomes of trials are coupled to have a “gate-to-gate” view of flights.
Ground movement
On average, aircraft are responsible for only about half of the emissions produced at and around airports(1). The airport related emission sources are generally categorised under aircraft emissions (aircraft engines and auxiliary power units), aircraft handling emissions (mainly ground support equipment, airside traffic, aircraft de-icing and refuelling), infrastructure or stationary sources (surface de-icing, power/heat generation plant, construction activities, etc.), and all vehicle traffic sources associated with the airport on access roads.
Green ground movement trials with Air France at Paris CDG (in cooperation with the DSNA and Ae'roports de Paris) presently conducted seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new collaborative decision support system which will minimise taxi time and allow for single engine taxi operation, thanks to enhanced time predictability.
Terminal
Airports are one of the bottlenecks of the present air traffic management system. Air traffic flows are managed on a first-come, first-served basis leading to unnecessary fuel burn, as air traffic control (ATC) often requires aircraft to level off and hold at intermediate altitudes during descent.
"Green" approach (Continuous Descent Approaches) and green climb trials at Madrid, Paris CDG and Stockholm airports involving DSNA, Thales, AVTECH, LFV, Novair, Egis Avia, AENA, INECO, Iberia and Air France are planned. The first ‘Required Navigation Performance’ CDA approach ever to be performed in Europe is now planned at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport in cooperation with Airbus.
Oceanic
In the present system, ever increasing traffic flows between Europe and North America are leading to inefficient fuel consumption, fewer accepted pilot requests and airline schedule disruptions.
Trials for "green" Oceanic procedures and techniques (speed, horizontal and lateral flight profile optimisation) with Nav Portugal, Isavia involving TAP Portugal, Air France, ADACEL and Icelandair on selected routes between Europe and North/Latin America are being carried out in 2009.
(1) According to ICAO Circular 303/AN 176
