This week the aviation industry has had its focus on developing alternative energy both on the ground and in the air. East Midlands Airport announced plans to have four giant wind turbines built by the end of this year, which will be used to generate electricity for the airport. The turbines will generate 900 kilowatt hours of electricity – without any emissions to pollute the environment – which is enough to cover about 10% of the airport's energy needs. This project is part of a wider plan to make the airport's ground operations carbon neutral.

Airports in the US, in Texas, Dallas, Las Vegas and Houston, have the same goal of carbon neutrality, but are concentrating on a different initiative to take them there. Working together with Clean Energy Fuels, the airports have all set up major new airport compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling business. At these airports, Clean Energy will build a public access CNG fueling stations which will support the growing fleets of off-airport parking shuttle fleets, on-airport courtesy shuttle vehicles as well as taxis and private CNG fleet vehicles.

A new report has been published which outlines various case studies looking at the efforts that have been made over the past years by airports aimed at cutting emissions and improving efficiency… just so they know their efforts are not being ignored!

This week has also seen a major announcement from Qatar Airways, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Qatar Petroleum, with the support of Airbus. These companies are to jointly develop production of an alternative fuel for aircraft. Following a feasibility study into bio fuel seven months ago, the initiative now establishes the Qatar Advanced Biofuel Platform to develop the fuel. Initially Qatar Airways will be a dedicated end-user, but there is a view to opening the production out to other airlines and companies. Yet whilst deals are being struck on the ground, it is not without movement in the air - this initiative comes just months after Qatar Airways completed the world's first commercial flight powered by a Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) fuel blend. And again, efforts are not unnoticed - even Qatar's deputy premier Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah has shown excitement over the “tremendous” prospects this work has shown!

And there’s one more… monthly magazine Air Transport World selected Air New Zealand as its Airline of the Year for 2010. As well as recognition for its commitment to safety and operational excellence, the airline was specifically praised for its environmental initiatives, including conducting the world's first sustainable biofuel flight. While they are not doing it for the praise of awards, it does go to show that being an environmental leader is recognised.

“You’re next holiday may be powered by weeds” wrote Dominic O’Connell in the Sunday Times this week and indeed he may be right... Last week we saw a passenger biofuel flight by KLM and the last in a series of ‘MINT’ flights; this week sees development through British Airways who have taken a big step into the world of biofuels by starting trials in conjunction with Rolls-Royce. The trails involve conducting largescale ground tests of a range of fuels made from plants and will take place as of next year. BA will buy up to 240 tonnes of four kinds of biofuels for its research. The data generated by the tests should help speed the certification of the fuels for commercial use, with regulatory approval expected towards the end of next year.

Latin American airliner, GOL, announced this week their plan to have all aircraft be equipped with sensors to enable the use of the GPS Landing System, as well as Vertical Situation Display, as of January 2010. GOL predicts the GPS Landing System will become the dominant global technology in the near future. This equipment permits continuous ascent or descent which reduces fuel consumption and the emission of environmentally harmful gases by up to 15% in these flight stages. Enhancing this is the Vertical Situation Display which allows pilots to accurately identify, from the cockpit, information on ground relief and obstacles therefore permitting more efficient landing planning, reducing landing component wear and tear and, consequently, future maintenance expenses.

Elsewhere, there has been a request to ‘Switch off!’ by Stansted airport as they launch their new energy awareness campaign. Rather than leaving appliances on standby, airport staff are encouraged to save power by switching off therefore saving power, reducing emissions and by transferring this practice to home as well, saving some money on energy bills! This initiative is a part of the airport’s Energy Management Plan to reduce CO2 emissions from airport buildings and infrastructure by 30% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Other initiatives at Stansted include installation of a biomass boiler which has brought a 75% saving on gas consumption in the terminal building, use of movement sensors in office areas to turn lights off when areas aren't in use and a move to introduce low energy lighting across the airfield.

The Airport Operators Association released a report this week, which details the contribution of aviation to the UK economy.

The aviation industry itself is calculated as accounting for 141,000 jobs in the UK –  which increases to 234,000 jobs when considering supply chain employment. What’s more, the labour productivity is around 35% per employee higher than the UK average: £62,000 GVA per employee versus the £46,000 average.

But what does this mean for the economy? In terms of direct benefits, the aviation sector generates £8.8 billion of UK economic output (measured as GVA), or 0.7% of the total GVA of the UK economy. This figure increases to 18.4 billion (1.5%) when the economic activity needed to supply the inputs purchased by the sector is taken into account. The sector also contributes directly around £4.8 billion of revenue to the Exchequer, (0.9% of UK overall tax revenue in 2007/08), with an additional £3 billion via its supply chain.

The report also takes time to look into benefits brought from further afield, by considering the codependency between aviation and other sectors such as trade and tourism. These sectors are evidently of great importance to aviation, but equally, without air travel, these sectors would also suffer!

However, analyses within the report demonstrate that the industry has been unfairly targeted in the UK with regards to the punitive measures it has received. Calculations show that in fact aviation is paying more than its fair share in ‘green taxes’ when compared with its environmental impact, and this is set to increase even further. In 2007, the annual tax and regulatory burden on the aviation sector exceeded the amount aviation should have been paying due to any impacts the industry may have on the environment (measured through carbon emissions costs, noise and local air quality) by up to £0.6 billion. This is expected to rise to £0.7 – £1.1 billion by 2012 as a result of the hike in Air Passenger Duty planned by the UK government.

Effort has been truly industry-wide this week, with praise due across the board from engine manufacturers to airports for their improvements in regards to their environmental performance. 

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has been named the Air Navigation Services Provider of the Year by the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation. CAAS has been recognised for its achievements in operational efficiencies that improve fuel efficiency thus reducing costs and emissions, such as the improved management and shortening of routes.

DFW International Airport in Texas has also been reducing emissions and has been recognised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its efforts. The airport was recently pushed up to number 11 in the EPA’s top 20 Local Government List of the largest green power purchasers. The airport purchases nearly 53 million kWh of green power per year, which is enough to meet 18% of the organization’s purchased electricity use. According to the EPA, this is equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions of nearly 7,000 passenger vehicles per year, or is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 5,000 average American homes annually.

Frankfurt Airport looks set to make improvements in this area as well. A project has been launched to look into the potential of the Walldorf deep-earth geothermal field as resource for renewable energy. If all goes well, the partners will construct a hybrid power plant, which will use geothermal power and biogas to produce electricity and heat which will then be used to supply Frankfurt Airport with renewable energy, so fingers crossed!

And finally, Rolls Royce won a contract this week with Virgin Atlantic to power ten of the carriers’ aircraft with its state of the art Trent 700 engines. Six of the aircraft that are to be supplied are Airbus model A330’s, which will feature an enhanced performance version of the Trent 700… and what does that mean? These enhanced Trent 700’s improve engine fuel burn by a further 1.3% over the regular models, helping Virgin Atlantic’s to pursue its mission to fly a modern fleet with the most fuel efficient technology available.

In other news, the Doha Aviation Summit2009 this week brought together internationally recognised associations, civil aviation authorities, ministries of aviation, airports, airlines and leading service providers to discuss various current issues the industry is facing. Much time was dedicated to the industry’s action on tackling environmental issues, with input in particular from Christohpe Cros from Airbus, who offered advice to the aviation market on new technology that lowers emissions and works towards a carbon neutral aviation industry. The conference suitably concluded with a 'Green Aviation' day where panelists discussed the carbon free future of aviation providing different perspective on development and deployment of new technologies, efficient usage of infrastructure, progress and utilisation of alternative fuels and the role of the government and institutional bodies in ensuring the carbon neutral growth.

‘Research and Markets’ have provided us with some uplifting news this week, announcing the release of their new ‘Airports go green’ report. As we’ve noted in recent weeks, airports have made significant contributions in fighting climate change by adopting numerous strategies to limit their emissions. ‘Airports go green’ is dishing out some well-deserved praise to those airports that have acted to reduce their environmental impact, offering case studies and explaining the initiatives that have been taken. It is just this type of encouragement which will create the incentive for others to follow!

New cross-industry agreements are resulting in further improvements in the environmental performance of aircrafts. For example, the long-term supply agreement established this week between Honeywell and China Southern Airlines, which will see new Auxiliary Power Units installed in their Airbus A320’s and Boeing Next-Generation 737’s. This move is set to reduce fuel consumption by 5% per aircraft.
 
Looking forward, Airbus is expected to make an announcement in the coming weeks on the new winglet programme for the Airbus A320 family… once it has decided which winglet design it will use! Airbus has already said it will go ahead with the programme which will reduce fuel burn by 2% - 4% depending on the design chosen. So now all that’s left is to make the final decision: an Aviation Partners blended winglet design, or an Airbus-own design interestingly called "sharklets"?

Following on from last week’s trends, there have been more interesting technological advances both in the air and on the ground. Something that caught my eye in particular was Logan International Airport’s new “green” asphalt runway, which will be nearly completed this weekend and is expected to open later this year. The runway is being paved with a type of environmentally friendly asphalt called “warm mix”, which is heated to lower temperatures than normal, therefore burning less fuel and cutting carbon emissions. For this project, that will mean cutting 4,000 tons of CO2 and 400,000 gallons of diesel.
 
This week has also been witness to a groundbreaking deal between Biojet Corporation and E85 LLC regarding a Bio-SPK forward contract for the sale by BioJet and the purchase by E85 of 4 million barrels of aviation bio jet fuel. ("Bio-SPK" is now the proper aviation industry term for bio jet fuel.) The contract is by far the largest sale of biojet and is said to enable a worldwide aviation bio jet commodity chain. Bio-SPK is a second generation biofuel generated from Jatropha and is expected that certification for commercial use by the American Society for Testing and Materials International (ASTMI) will be completed by the end of 2010.
 
Elsewhere, some airlines are still acting to make their planes ‘sexier’ by the addition of winglets. Besides giving planes a well-deserved make-over, these winglets are designed to reduce the drag of aircraft and alter airflow, thus reducing fuel usage and cutting carbon emissions. LAN Air Lines announced last Friday their entry into a one-year contract with the maintenance division of Delta Air Lines, Delta TechOps, for the installment of winglets on their aircraft fleet. Under the agreement, the airline’s fuel will reduce by around 450,000 tons per year and CO2 emissions will decrease by 5% for each aircraft.

In the news this week airports have shown positive improvements as they make their own contributions to lowering carbon emissions.

Sky Harbor International Airport, Pheonix, has announced plans to lower their carbon footprint by converting airport-based vehicles to alternate fuels and building a $1.1 billion automated train that aims to take thousands of cars off the streets near Sky Harbor. Measures are also being taken by airlines operating at Sky Harbor to cut emissions on the ground by replacing diesel-powered ground-support vehicles with electric versions.

San Francisco International Airport has also been working hard, becoming the first in the nation to allow passengers to off-set their carbon emissions from flights. Climate Passport kiosks located in the airport determine how many pounds of CO2 a trip will produce and calculate accordingly how much an environmentally-friendly traveler should contribute in order to off-set their travel. Passengers are then able to purchase these certified carbon offsets.

In other news, the European Voice published an interesting piece on the aviation industry’s development of new fuels and innovative technology. The article talks of the vast improvement we have witnessed in biofuel development, as it has gone from being simply an “interesting concept” to being tested in flights in just 18 months. Also mentioned, is the new ‘silent’ aircraft, the Sax-40, an aircraft designed with wings that blend seamlessly into the body of the plane, reducing noise and carbon emissions.

The aviation industry, it seems, is well on the way to achieving its very ambitious targets!

Here's Olivier Jankovec from ACI Europe and Declan Collier of Dublin Airport Authority as the ACI Europe Airport Carbon Accreditation programme is launched:

I’m at the ACI Europe Annual Meeting in Manchester, where the European airports association has just launched its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. This is a significant step in the standardisation of emissions reduction across airports and follows a goal set down by ACI for its airports worldwide to move towards carbon neutral operations.

The programme allows airports to take inventory of their current carbon emissions (mapping) and then presents a rigorous series of steps at which they must reduce the emissions under their own control (reduction), work with suppliers and partners such as airlines and air traffic control to reduce overall airport emissions (optimisation) and then work towards carbon neutrality through verified offsetting of those emissions that can’t be eliminated (neutrality).

A large number of airports around the world have already started to undertake a few of these steps, particularly mapping and reduction. However, there has never been a standard to follow and so airports have many times had to rely on how other businesses have undertaken similar projects, or start a plan from scratch. Airports are fairly unique environments, with a number of different organisations operating under some fairly ‘strange’ conditions when compared to other industries.

Airport terminals have to be built to accommodate close to peak passenger numbers, even if those numbers are only reached at high season and for certain hours during the day. They also have to be built years in advance, taking into account passenger growth and other traffic considerations. So new and innovative solutions have to be found to heat, cool and light such structures in a smart way.

There are also multiple players that have to be taken into account – airlines, retailers, ground handlers, government agencies, air navigation service providers, car rental companies, catering companies, postal services, freight businesses and many others all operate on an airport site and must play a part in an overall airport emissions footprint, even though the airport company itself may be directly responsible for a small proportion of those emissions.

What impresses me about the ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation programme is just how rigorous it is. Airports apply for accreditation and move up the four steps towards carbon neutrality, but each step is very demanding and overseen by independent assessors – the details that airports must provide are significant and each process is overseen by a third party.

The 31 airports that have signed up so far range from very large to mid-sized airports in Europe but together they account for some quarter of passenger traffic across the continent – this is very significant and I expect that other airports in Europe (and other parts of the world) will soon take the plunge and join the project.

The full list of airports embarking on the programme (as of today) include:

• Aéroports de Paris (Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly) in France.
• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands.
• Athens International Airport in Greece.
• Avinor (Oslo, Trondheim/Værnes and Ålesund/Vigra airports) in Norway.
• Dublin Airport Authority (Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports) in Ireland.
• Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia.
• Fraport (Frankfurt-am-Main Airport) in Germany.
• LFV Airports (Göteborg, Landvetter, Kiruna, Luleå, Malmö, Ronneby, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stockholm-Bromma, Umeå, Visby and Åre Östersund airports) in Sweden.
• Manchester Airport Group (Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports) in the UK.
• SEA Milan Airports (Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate) in Italy.
• TAV (Istanbul Atatürk International Airport, Ankara Esenboğa International Airport, İzmir Adnan Menderes International Airport) in Turkey.

Kevin Dobby, International  Aviation Adviser, acted as biofuels rapporteur for Day 1 of the Aviation and Environment Summit. He concluded that the biofuels technology works and that the drop-in model is the right one. However, there remain questions that need to be answered, such as standards for sustainability, as well as other economic factors. For his complete presentation, see the video below.

Kurt Schaad, Executive Producer for Swiss National Television, was the rapporteur for driving aviation efficiency. He explained that new initiatives are pushing 'out of the box', although numerous challenges remain in the areas of technology, operations and infrastructure. Schaad concluded by reminding us that 'all discussions need global solutions.' Click on the video to view his presentation.