Sustainable tourism - Fuel management

"Our priority is to achieve real greenhouse gas emissions reductions while informing our customers and making them aware that travelling lighter can help in the fight against climate change.” — Allen B. Graham, President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Transat

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially CO2, are a factor in climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that aviation is responsible for approximately 2% of global CO2 emissions. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), meanwhile, stated in the 2007 Davos Declaration that, overall, tourism may account for 5% of emissions.

A rigorous program of aircraft fuel consumption management enables real, measurable reductions in GHG emissions attributable to air transport. In 2003, Air Transat developed and began applying such a program, and has continued to refine it ever since. The results have been spectacular. All things being equal, Air Transat’s fuel consumption and its GHG emissions decreased by 5.5% between 2003 and 2007, and the airline estimates that during that period it prevented the release of 129,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere (that’s the equivalent of the emissions from 21,000 motor vehicles).

Air Transat ranks among the carriers that have adopted air transport industry best practices when it comes to fuel management. The firm commitment of our employees has been, and continues to be, a determining factor in the success of our program.

Air Transat’s fuel consumption and GHG emissions decreased by 5.5% between 2003 and 2007, and during that period the airline estimates that it prevented the release of 129,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Air travel remains one of the world’s most efficient means of public transportation, and the airline industry is firmly committed to meeting the challenge of climate change, thanks in part to evolving technology. Over the past 40 years, for example, average fuel consumption per passenger has dropped by 70%. It is expected that between 2005 and 2020, consumption will decrease by 25%, and the industry has made commitments in this regard. It is also estimated that emissions could be lowered by 12% over the very short term if governments made efforts to reduce crowded skies, along with congestion at certain airports.

In 2007, Air Transat’s fuel consumption was 3.17 litres per passenger/100 kilometres, which is a fuel economy that compares quite favourably to that of any automobile. Our calculations show that this corresponds to 8.02 kilograms of CO2 per passenger per 100 km. The nearly 13,000 flights that Air Transat made in 2007 generated 1,013,970 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which is an average of about 0.7 tonne per traveller per return flight.

Air Transat serves some 60 destinations in about 30 countries, including several sun destinations and major European cities year-round. In summer, no other airline offers as many direct flights between Canada and Europe (around 60).

Air Transat’s fuel management program, considered one of the best of its kind, is characterized by its rigorous approach. Most of the program’s measures have also been adopted by other carriers, but Air Transat stands out in that has systematically applied them, and refined their application, thanks in part to collaborative efforts with top experts, constant teamwork and boundless motivation.

Our fuel-saving initiatives involve flight operations, flight planning, ground operations, engineering and catering services. While some measures outwardly may seem quite ordinary, they translate into impressive numbers over a full year of operations. Following is just a brief glimpse of the components of Air Transat’s program.

The easiest method of reducing an aircraft’s fuel consumption is to reduce its weight. Physics takes care of the rest: over an equal flying distance, a lighter plane will burn less fuel. For example, Air Transat’s planes are equipped with lighter-weight lifejackets and cargo containers.

Another weight-reduction measure has been to reduce the amounts of drinking water and certain products for consumption carried on aircraft, depending on the destination. Rather than needlessly loading aircraft and applying the same parameters on all routes, statistical analyses have been conducted to precisely evaluate the necessary quantities of these items for given flight times and destinations. Even with the application of reasonable safety margins, the weight savings are substantial.

Travellers can do their part

Passengers can easily do their part. Travelling lighter means saving fuel. Pack one less pair of shoes, buy a paperback at your destination instead of before you leave, use smaller bottles – and a few million passengers later, many tonnes of CO2 emissions will have been avoided.

The average person probably thinks a flight plan is pretty simple: (“Let’s see, we have to go from Point A to Point B, following a straight line and flying at a certain speed...”). In fact, the preparation of a flight plan is a complex procedure that must take a number of variables into consideration. For instance, aircraft performance and fuel consumption depend a great deal on altitude (because of the changing density of the atmosphere, for example), wind speed (tailwinds improve performance) and air speed (which is related to flight time). There are also constraints imposed by air traffic control, and specific rules to be followed on transoceanic flights. Flight plan optimization is one of the fundamental components of Air Transat’s fuel management program.

To this end, the airline has acquired a software application that enables refinements to flight planning procedures by assessing a greater number of variables. Some weather data, for instance, are now updated more frequently, enabling pilots to make minor altitude adjustments to take advantage of tailwinds. Air Transat has set up a task force that, using these new tools, can now determine optimum flight plans with much greater precision. This includes calculating the precise quantity of fuel to load into tanks and determining the optimal aircraft speed (a lower speed, resulting in a few minutes more flight time, may prove efficient), etc. translating into average savings of about 500 kg of fuel per flight.

Each year, the world’s airlines burn thousands of tonnes of fuel while their planes are simply taxiing between terminals and runways. Before takeoff as well as after landing, an aircraft typically taxis for about 15 minutes. Air Transat has adopted several measures aimed at reducing fuel consumption during ground movements of aircraft, the most important of which is introducing single-engine taxiing. A further benefit of this measure is reduced noise.

Upon landing, pilots decelerate using a combination of aerodynamic spoilers, thrust reversers and brakes. Traditionally, they have favoured use of the thrust reversers so as to minimize brake wear – but this requires burning a certain amount of fuel to preserve engine thrust. With the advent of carbon brakes, which resist high temperatures better than traditional steel brakes, Air Transat has formally instituted a procedure whereby pilots use idle reverse thrust as opposed to maximum reverse thrust after landing, which reduces both fuel consumption and noise.

A further technique developed by Air Transat involves the method of cargo and baggage loading, which optimizes the aircraft’s centre of gravity. Ensuring that the centre of gravity is shifted slightly aft, rather than forward, improves an aircraft’s performance by modifying the angle of attack, which in turn allows it to burn slightly less fuel. Given that an aircraft spends many hours cruising, even a tiny improvement in this regard can make a significant difference. Once it perfected this technique, Air Transat set up a program to train the appropriate personnel in optimum cargo and baggage loading.

In terms of aircraft maintenance, there are many measures, some relatively inexpensive, that can produce fuel savings. For example, something as simple as chipped and scratched paint can affect an aircraft’s aerodynamics. Immediate repairs can make a big difference, and to this end, Air Transat has implemented improved inspection procedures. The company has also discovered that more frequent engine washes can result in significant gains. Engine washes clean hydrocarbons, dirt, grime and insects that build up on fan blades and compressor blades, and allow engines to burn less fuel to achieve the equivalent amount of thrust.

In short, investments in software and equipment, and especially the energy and professionalism of an entire team, allow our passengers to fly with their minds at ease, knowing that every litre of fuel is being burned efficiently.

Many travel operator websites now include links to sites that specialize in selling carbon credits, whereby passengers can “offset” the GHGs emitted during their trip by investing in a variety of projects that reduce CO2 emissions. For the moment, we have decided to forego this practice, for the following reasons.

First of all, we believe it is much more important to make efforts to reduce our own emissions and emphasize the significance of such reductions.

Many credible studies have reached the consensus that there are major issues that undermine the credibility of the carbon offsets market. It is generally agreed that many for-profit companies retain an overly significant portion of the funds paid; that the quality of the carbon elimination or sequestration projects varies greatly; that it is difficult to determine which vendor of credits or projects is reliable; that it is difficult to have reasonable assurances that the carbon will actually be eliminated once the credits have been purchased, etc. In fact, our research shows that the funds are sometimes invested in very odd initiatives, many of them reforestation projects which experts generally agree are rather ineffective solutions. In addition to the above, all the carbon calculators currently available on the market yield different results and the price of carbon offsets varies in every way. Many observers are currently calling for a much stricter certification framework.

It is currently very easy to purchase credits to offset carbon emissions. They are readily available on many websites. We have cautiously made the firm decision not to link our name with any carbon offset vendor at present.