An Airbus-led consortium in partnership with Air
France and the air navigation service providers from the UK,
Canada and the US (NATS, Nav Canada and the FAA) is to begin
‘Transatlantic Green Flight’ (TGF) trials with an Air France
A380 on revenue flights from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG).
Under a recent contract from the SESAR Joint
Undertaking (SJU), these A380 TGF trials are part of the second
wave the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to reduce Emissions
– “AIRE2”. The first phase, AIRE, was jointly launched by the
European Commission and the FAA in June 2007 at the Paris Air
Show.
The TGF flights are due to take place over a six
to eight week period commencing in the fourth quarter of 2010.
These will cover the optimisation of the taxi-out procedure at
John F. Kennedy airport, as well as the en-route leg over the
Atlantic. Overall it is estimated that each A380 flight can reduce
CO2 emissions by around three tonnes, compared with existing
procedures.
“These transatlantic flight trials will help to
move the industry towards more efficient operational concepts and
sustainable growth over the longer term,” said Charles Champion,
Executive Vice President of Engineering at Airbus. “What we trial
today with the A380 will contribute to setting tomorrow’s
standards, thanks to system-wide Air Traffic Management
improvements prepared by programmes like SESAR and NextGen.”
The FAA will support Air France to start each
trial with a fuel-saving ‘reduced engine taxi’ from the gate to
the runway at JFK. This will be enabled via estimates of taxi
time, allowing for A380 taxiing powered by only two of its four
engines. Meanwhile, NATS and Nav Canada will facilitate the
Atlantic portion of the flight which will reduce CO2 emissions
through an optimized trajectory where more flexibility will be
arranged for speed, altitude and lateral routing. This trajectory
takes advantage of the A380’s high optimum cruise altitude of
39,000ft and above.
Airbus is also engaged as a partner in two
further AIRE2 trials: ‘VINGA’ and ‘Green Shuttle’. VINGA, which
builds on the experience of last year’s AIRE ‘MINT’ flight trials
(with Novair and Swedish Air Navigation Service provider LFV),
will now for the first time validate a transition from a curved
RNP 0.3 arrival to an ILS approach at Gothenburg Landvetter
Airport. This operational implementation will be facilitated by
Airbus’ RNP services subsidiary, Quovadis. Meanwhile, the ‘Green
Shuttle’ project, in partnership with Air France and the French
air navigation service provider DSNA, seeks to optimize all phases
of the airline’s ‘La Navette’ flights between Paris-Orly and
Toulouse which are operated with A320 Family aircraft.
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