Performance Based Navigation
One of the more exciting improvements in navigation that reduces flight time, saves fuel and reduces emissions is the introduction of Performance Based Navigation (PBN).
PBN takes the best that aircraft flight management systems and navigation systems, such as GPS, have to offer - and bundles these capabilities into a global set of navigation standards called PBN. With PBN, aircraft can fly anywhere in the world, whether flight paths are straight, great circle or curved. It allows navigation to terrain challenged airports with great precision and to any runway end that terrain will allow.
PBN’s enhancements to safety are significant - as even airports located in the poorest areas of the world do not need to install, calibrate and monitor expensive ground based navigation aids.
Routes, including departures, arrivals and approaches, based on the new ICAO PBN criteria are demonstrating significant fuel and cost savings for airlines. One area is the designing of terminal procedures with curved flight paths for arrivals and departures. Although PBN is relatively new, the results are already showing significant savings. For example, Qantas and AirServices Australia had PBN procedures implemented at Brisbane. For Qantas’ Boeing 737s alone, the savings from the first 1,612 approaches was 17,300 less track miles flown with 650 tonnes CO2 saved.
IATA and ICAO established the Global PBN Task Force to address how to implement PBN quickly and safely throughout the world. As implementation requires commitment from across the industry, an Industry Declaration was developed and signed in Geneva at the Aviation Environmental Summit by the 10 global organizations representing all the stakeholders. When fully implemented, PBN should bring about 2% savings to the total operational efficiency of the air traffic system, which equates to approximately 4 million tonnes of fuel and 13 million tonnes CO2 savings per year. The next generation air traffic systems of SESAR (Europe) and NextGen (United States) both embrace PBN.
Left to right - Mr. Giovanni Bisignani (DG, IATA), Angela Gittens (DG, ACI), Marc Baumgartner (CEO, IFATCA), Alexander ter Kuile (SG, CANSO) and Francois Gayet (Chair, ICCAIA, ASD)
Airports Developments
Since September 2006, the Airport Development section has been consulting with the Airport Company of South Africa (ACSA) on a bi-annual basis to monitor their proposed CAPEX plans for Cape Town (CPT), Durban (DUR) and Johannesburg (JNB) airports.
IATA received confirmation from ACSA that they had reduced their CAPEX plans. The sudden downturn in traffic and a revised forecast indicating that traffic will stagnate for between 15 to 18 months had prompted ACSA to heed IATA’s previous cautionary recommendations.
IATA highlighted:
- That ACSA should use their existing assets, ensuring the capacity of all existing passenger and cargo terminals be used at optimum levels;
- Should reduce the scope of current projects and/or defer individual projects;
- Ensure future capacity enhancement projects were demand led.
The Airport Development section was informed by ACSA that the following projects had been deferred:
- At CPT a new realigned runway and associated taxiways
- At JNB a new midfield passenger terminal complex with capacity for 13 mppa and a new midfield cargo terminal.
Unfortunately, IATA has been unable to restrict government-led initiatives to prematurely increase capacity at all three airports in advance of the 2010 football World Cup. These plans include new large scale passenger terminal complexes at both CPT and JNB and a new Airbus A380 compliant airport in Durban, where low traffic levels (4.1 mppa forecast for 2009) and sufficient capacity at the existing airport, did not warrant the current 6.73 b Rand of investment currently underway.
Airport Development had once again worked closely with local airline representatives, including the Airlines Association of Southern Africa and Board of Airline Representatives in South Africa. The Airport Development section had been ably supported by colleagues from Airport and ATC Charges, who had managed to limit ACSA’s request (to the Regulator) to increase charges - down from 46.4% to 18.5%.
Continuous Descent Approach
A joint industry action plan by IATA, CANSO, EUROCONTROL and other organisations for the implementation of Continuous Descent Operations at more than 100 airports across Europe by the end of 2013 was launched at the 4th Aviation and Environment Summit held in Geneva on 31 March.
Left to right - Alexander ter Kuile (SG, CANSO), Guenther Mastchnigg (SVP, IATA) Giovanni Bisignani (DG, IATA), Alex Hendricks (EC), Yannis Paraschis (CEO, Athens Airport) and Francois Gayet (Chair, ICCAIA, ASD)
Executing a Continuous Descent means that the aircraft will fly a smooth approach into an airport rather than the classical stepped approach. It will not only reduces fuel burn by between 50 and 150 kg for a short-to-medium haul aircraft, but also reduces CO2 emissions by 160 to 470 kg per flight.
Continuous Descent will also reduces noise around the airport by between 1 and 5 decibels.
With Continuous Descent rolled out at some 100 mainly secondary airports in Europe where the impact on runway capacity is low airlines will save 150,000 tonnes of fuel and 100 million Euro a year while reducing CO2 by half a million tonnes.