(Photo by JustinHession/Getty)

"From a communications perspective, making a special announcement on April 1st is a challenge," Philippe Rochat, the former Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group, noted this morning at the Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva. But undeterred, major groups in the aviation industry signed a Declaration calling for the rapid implementation of Performance-based Navigation (PBN), an air navigation concept that leads to safety, efficiency and environmental improvements for aircraft, particularly on their approach to an airport.

PBN has already been put in place in a number of airports, where the benefits have become very clear. For example, Qantas and Airservices Australia have developed PBN arrival procedures for Australian airports. In the first year, Qantas flew 1612 PBN approaches to Brisbane in low visibility conditions, which reduced normal distance flown by 17,300 nautical miles and reduced CO2 emissions by 650,000 kg. Overall, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that shorter PBN routes could cut CO2 emissions by 13 million tonnes per year if globally implemented.

The Declaration, backed by organisations such as ICAO, IATA, CANSO, IFATCA and ACI calls upon all leaders of the civil aviation community to actively implement PBN in accordance with ICAO provisions. Implementing PBN requires a true total industry approach, hence the wide industry support. It also reaffirms how important global cooperation is to the success of projects such as this. It’s a theme we’ve seen time and again at this Summit and it was great to see a real example of it this morning.

As CANSO Secretary General Alexander ter Kuile said, "From the perspective of air navigation services, it does not get any better than this."

Click here to view the Declaration and the signatories.