During a recent meeting of ICAO’s North Atlantic Systems Planning Group (NAT SPG), group members found high praise for the SESAR JU and AIRE partners regarding their initiatives for the greening of transatlantic flight. For example the Portuguese representative emphasised that Portugal, being already a partner on some of the SESAR JU projects, would continue to support AIRE. The IATA representative also expressed his appreciation for the AIRE programme and its projects and noted with satisfaction that other North Atlantic ANSPs were looking to build upon these successes.

The evaluation of more than 10,000 green flight trials performed in the framework of AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions) has shown an impressive 80% transition rate from trials to routine, daily ATM procedures. The AIRE initiative managed by the SESAR JU has led to 24 successful projects in Europe since 2009 covering the optimisation of surface, terminal and oceanic/en-route operations as well as full green ‘gate-to-gate’ flights. These projects demonstrated savings ranging from 60 to 2,000 kilograms (kg) of CO2 per flight. But AIRE is not only successful in view of its green results. Cooperation between airlines, ANSPs, airport operators and industry partners also fosters better comprehension of systems and their limitations.

The programme was launched in 2007 by the European Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration to originally optimise oceanic operations between the two continents. Consequently, it still includes common projects between North-American and European partners. One of these projects is ENGAGE (Europe-North America GO ADS-B for a Greener Environment) with NATS (UK ANSP) and NAV CANADA assessing the impact of variable Mach and altitude in the North Atlantic and within the ENGAGE corridor. The project attracted attention of ICAO’s NAT SPG not only due to its positive environmental results but also because the project partners expressed intentions to extend the scope and number of operators involved allowing more flights to participate in the future.