Canadian airline Westjet took some time on Friday to announce their latest weight- and fuel-saving idea. I think this video tells the whole story…

Yesterday we spoke of incremental improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency occurring on the microscopic level. Today, something of a different magnitude altogether. On Sunday, Boeing unveiled its newest aircraft, the 747-8 Intercontinental. This is a re-design of the famous jumbo jet, but calling it a re-design probably doesn’t do the aircraft justice. Aside from it [...]

Well, in this case quite a few. But that is not because they were changing a light bulb, but the entire light itself. And their efforts will do a lot to reduce emissions on the latest upgrade to the Boeing 737 family. Boeing first flew the 737 in 1968. Since then the aircraft has become [...]

Did you know that by shifting the load of bags and cargo in the hold of an aircraft can reduce fuel use in the flight by as much as half a percent? Or that one airport has saved 33,000 tonnes of CO2 each year by installing fixed electrical ground power? Or that the Wright Brothers’ [...]

View Larger Map You may have (or, let’s face it, may not have) heard about the project called Single European Sky. It is a project to streamline the current national airspace boundries that have the skies over Europe split into some 30 different blocks. Currently, flights crossing the European continent have to zig-zag across a [...]

Japanese airline ANA, has been setting the standards high this month for finding original and effective ideas that cut carbon emissions. The latest addition to ANA’s innovative schemes is their unique carbon offset programme, which allows passengers to offset the impact of their flight directly through their mobile phone. Codes are printed on posters and [...]

A UK aviation coalition including airport operators BAA, airlines BA and Virgin Atlantic and the CAA have published a new interim code of practice this week, designed to help cut aircraft emissions by reducing fuel burn from aircraft at airports. The document is technical in nature, and so primarily targeted at pilots, flight planners and [...]

Anyone who doubts aviation’s desire for fuel efficiency – with the reduced emissions to go along with it – need only take a look at this report on the BBC. In its world energy outlook for 2008, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast that oil prices are back on an upward trend and may [...]

Last Friday was a busy day for my colleagues in New Zealand and on the West Coast of the USA, as the first-ever ASPIRE flight took off. ASPIRE stands for Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions, and the primary actors are the ANSPs Airways New Zealand, Air Services Australia, and the Federal Aviation [...]