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ATM and Greenhouse Gases
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 12% inefficiency exists in air traffic management (ATM) worldwide which accounts for 73 to 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. Dr. Chris Carey, Aviation Expert at Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment contributed to a recent study aimed at streamlining the ATM system.
"If you reduced the time aircraft spent waiting to land and taxi, allowed planes to use more direct flight paths and approach routes, and introduced a common air traffic control system, you could cut emissions from aviation by a significant amount" he says.
The study identifies several methods by which aircraft would be able to operate more efficiently. Indeed in aviation's version of Utopia, all aircraft would adhere to the most direct and fuel-efficient flight profiles. Every departure, arrival, altitude change and speed adjustment would be rigorously planned, executed and monitored by a centralized flow-management system which ensured that aircraft were granted their most economical cruising altitudes and sipped the least amount of fuel on an optimized profile descent. Multiple arriving aircraft would be coordinated to touch down on the runway according to a pre-determined sequence generated by the computer. Each "slot-time" would ensure the aircraft would be spaced three miles from all other arrivals.
Frankly however, the challenge facing the industry is not in identifying the measures that would reduce GHG emissions, but in determining how to implement such methods while upholding a consummate level of safety. With tens of thousands of aircraft traversing the globe on a daily basis, the integration of such a volume and variety of flight plans would create a veritable Gordian knot - one that is exacerbated by discrepancies in the international application of standards and procedures.
For emissions reduction to become a meaningful undertaking in aviation will require cooperation on a scale not yet seen between ANS providers as well as the users of the system.