Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) new service to Canberra and Wellington has joined a growing number of flights in the Asia Pacific region operating as “green routes” featuring more efficient operations on the ground and in the air.
Airservices said on Thursday these measures, outlined by the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE), helped reduce fuel consumption by about 7,000kg, resulting in a 22,000kg cut in carbon emissions for the inaugural Singapore-Canberra-Wellington-Canberra-Singapore flights on September 20/21.
That translated to a yearly saving of 1.5million kg of fuel and 4.6 million kg of carbon emissions.
Established in 2008, the ASPIRE group brings together Australia’s Airservices, Airways New Zealand, the US Federal Aviation Administration, Japan Air Navigation Services (JANS), the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and AeroThai in partnership with 10 airlines to develop ideas that improve environmental standards and operational procedures in an effort to reduce fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions.
It advocates a number of practices to improve the efficiency of flight covering ground taxiing, route optimisation and more collaborative decision making between air navigation service providers, airport operations, ground handling services, aircraft operators and other stakeholders.
Examples include User Preferred Routes, which enables airlines to customise more efficient flight paths; Dynamic Airborne Reroute Procedures, where airlines are able to change flight paths en route factoring in updated weather information; and Optimised Descent Profile, which helps cut down changes in engine thrust as the aircraft comes in to land.
There were now 30 ASPIRE daily city pairs across the Asia Pacific.
SIA acting senior vice president for flight operations Captain CE Quay said thanked all involved in making the “Capital Express” a part of the ASPIRE program.
“We constantly ensure that our operations are carried out in a responsible manner through a framework designed to manage issues related to carbon emissions, waste, noise and the consumption of energy and resources,” Captain Quay said.
Airservices said the four sectors of SQ291/SQ292 utilised 25 of a possible efficient flight operations and air traffic management practices.
“The new Singapore–Canberra–Wellington route is another excellent example of airlines, airports and air navigation agencies working together to reduce aviation greenhouse gas emissions globally,” Airservices executive general manager for air navigation services Stephen Angus said.
After a series of demonstration flights in 2008 from Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines and United, there are now daily ASPIRE flights out of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand, according to the ASPIRE website.
