ASPIRE leads the way to greener flights, cleaner skies

We’ve talked a lot about NextGen and better environmental benefits for air travel. Today, I'm happy to report major progress for both.

The Federal Aviation Administration has teamed up with its counterparts in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore as part of ASPIRE, the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions.  Their mission? To reduce aviation’s impact on the environment. 

And now, after three years of demonstration flights, the first daily for-profit ASPIRE flight, an Air New Zealand run from Auckland to San Francisco, is up and running.  It uses many of the flight procedures the group identified to help reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.  And, since these procedures often reduce flight times, passengers also benefit.

More daily ASPIRE routes are expected to come over the next four months, which means increased flight efficiency and decreased environmental impact.

“This is another significant step in our rollout of the Next Generation Air Transportation system,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.  “We’re beginning to bring the green benefits of NextGen to the airlines and passengers in the Pacific on a daily basis.”

To qualify as an ASPIRE flight, airlines must be equipped with advanced avionics that allow them to use at least four of the recommended environmentally friendly procedures per flight.  These include satellite-based avionics, which is a key feature of NextGen.  These systems allow for more efficient, direct communication between the aircraft, its pilots, and the air traffic controllers tracking a flight's progress from the control tower.

The ASPIRE program procedures allow more flexibility for pilots, helping them determine the most efficient routes rather than limiting them to fixed routes. This saves time for everyone on board and helps conserve fuel.

It’s great to see FAA’s hard work pay off as they move from the demonstration phase to daily revenue flights. I look forward to seeing the long term benefits of these efforts as we continue moving forward.

Comments

[Kelli B]

I am happy to see the green movement go to the air lines and the FAA. It never hurts to try and clean up our home. It is especially important for the air lines because every person breaths the air. I think an easy start to this movement would be the rerouting of planes for a more efficient travel. As said above, it is not only helping the Earth, but it is also saving passengers time and keeps money in their pockets. If air lines are saving money from the use of less oil, this may help keep down the air line prices.

I have heard about green solvents and cleaners that are being used on planes to wash them or clean the oil. I hope that this may be something that the ASPIRE could look into. It is great to hear about initiatives being used to green the travel.

This is a great movement and I hope to see more air lines catching on and trying to improve themselves and challenge themselves to go green. It will be extremely interesting to see what happens with this group and how far they can go.

[Web Design Melbourne]

This is fantastic news, but once again despite many talks of being green Australia falls short and Air New Zealand are the first to go green with ASPIRE.
We would love to see Qantas qualify some ASPIRE flights and get Australia on the map in terms of greener flights!

[SpecialTrue]

This is fantastic news. Realy!

This is a great movement and I hope to see more air lines catching on and trying to improve themselves and challenge themselves to go green.