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Environment & SESAR

Air traffic management affects when, how far, how high, how fast and how efficiently aircraft fly. These parameters in turn influence how much fuel an aircraft burns, the release of greenhouse and other gases from the engines and, of course, how much noise an aircraft emanates.

Currently, flight paths often follow set air corridors that make the route longer than necessary. On arrival at the destination the aircraft may have to circle in a holding pattern or descend in stages while awaiting a landing slot. All of these factors increase fuel consumption, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. SESAR technology will enable more direct flight paths and smooth descent and climb that will eliminate some of the main causes of avoidable waste.

Within the SESAR programme most out of the almost 300 projects include environmental aspects of aviation. They concern aircraft noise management and mitigation, aircraft fuel use and emissions management, as well as water pollution, etc. But environmental aspects are dealt with in all of the 16 work packages. The Joint Undertaking’s role is to establish environmental sustainability as an integral aspect of broader ATM development and operating processes.

SESAR’s environmental policy

SESAR aims at reducing the environmental impact per flight by 10% without compromising on safety but with clear capacity and cost efficiency targets in mind. Embedded in the European Union’s Single European Sky programme, SESAR will contribute to sustainable air transport within, into, out and over Europe. The programme unites all aviation players and such secures an effective deployment of the green technological and operational improvements.

Environmental goals 2009-2011 and beyond

The aim of the SESAR Joint Undertaking is to become the most environmentally conscious ATM development programme in the world. To this end, the SESAR programme will implement an advanced validation methodology that will ensure end-to-end consideration of environmental aspects in all R&D activities. At the same time, SESAR is in close cooperation with other European and international initiatives regarding the integration of new, environmentally friendly solutions for the aviation sector. One such project is the European Union’s Clean Sky Joint Technology Initiative that will develop breakthrough technologies to significantly improve the impact of the air transport on the environment. But SESAR also looks beyond 2011. Its long-term objectives are to:

  • Achieve emission improvements through the optimisation of air traffic management services. The SESAR target for 2020 is to enable 10% fuel savings per flight as a result of ATM improvements alone, leading to a 10% reduction of CO2 emissions per flight;
  • Improve the management of noise emissions and their impacts through better flight paths, or optimised climb and descent solutions;
  • Improve the role of ATM in enforcing local environmental rules by ensuring that flight operations fully comply with aircraft type restrictions, night movement bans, noise routes, noise quotas, etc.;
  • Improve the role of ATM in developing environmental rules by assessing the ecological impact of ATM constraints, and, following this assessment, adopting the best alternative solutions from a European sustainability perspective.

Environmental management system

The aim of an environmental management system is to support the implementation of the ATM Master Plan seen from an environmental perspective. Such a system usually includes set performance targets, their monitoring, documentation, verification and auditing. Within the SESAR programme, the development of an environmental management system applicable to relevant ATM stakeholders which follows international standards (e.g. ISO14001/EMASII) is foreseen.