At the Arab Aviation Summit in Doha last weekend, ‘Sky Blue’, the aviation industry in the Arab region has been sharing best practices and determining their priorities in order to achieve the industry-wide targets that will be set at the Copenhagen Climate Summit next month. Aviation in the Arab region has a very low emissions output, in part due to the comparatively new fleets of aircraft operating in the region, and also through the development of alternative energy methods. Qatar Airways sets a good example with their development of gas-to-liquids (GTL) aviation fuel – a sustainable fuel which burns greatly reduce carbon emissions in comparison to conventional oil-based petroleum. Qatar Airways made history in October this year by being the first airline to power a flight from London Gatwick to Doha on a fuel made of natural gas, and is expected to become the world’s leading producer of GTL kerosene when it is put into commercial production from 2012.

Also in the news this week, director-general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani has expressed how he believes the aviation industry can act as a model for Copenhagen climate talks. Aviation, Bisignani says, is a “microcosm of the climate change debate” and can lead the way with much-needed solutions needed from this conference, demonstrated already with the ambitious targets the industry has made for 2020 and 2050. Bisignani points out to the impressive track record the industry has shown, with achievements such as 70 million tons of CO2 saved by IATA in the last 5 years through operational solutions. Sustainable biofuels could further reduce aviation’s carbon footprint by up to 80%. Progress is indeed fast moving, and even just this week, KLM became the first airline to carry out a test flight carrying passengers, that was fuelled on 50% camelina, a biofuel, and 50% traditional fuel.

Another test flight took place this week – the last of a series of 10 that had been part of the ‘Minimum CO2 in Terminal Manoeuvring Area’ (MINT) project. The project has seen a series of 10 test flights in all which were investigating how modern aircraft can support performance based operations. The results showed significant reductions in emissions with savings of around 518 kg of CO2, reduced noise impact, and improvement of the predictability in the air transport system. MINT uses systems such as GPS and Required Navigation Performance, and operations such as Continuous Descent Arrival.