March 17, 2009 - Airlines are trying everything from biofuels to cross-polar flight paths in a bid to boost fuel efficiency as costs rise and profit margins shrink.
A Reuters dispatch from the recent ITB Berlin travel conference highlights some of the fuel-saving strategies that are taking off within the aviation industry:
- Powering aircraft with biofuels. Boeing environmental strategist Billy Glover predicts that commercial airlines will be begin blending biofuels with traditional kerosene jet fuel within the next five years, although he concedes that the percentage will likely start small. Virgin Atlanticand Air New Zealand are just two of the airlines currently testing their biofuels options.
- Rejuvenating aircraft fleets. Lufthansa has set a goal to cut the average age of its fleet 7% by 2011 - 10.5 years. By comparison, budget airline Ryanair operates a fleet averaging just 2.5 years.
- Landing more efficiently. Air traffic jams burn through fuel as planes circle waiting for their turn to land. Boeing reports that its customized landing-path program, currently in pilot phase, saved more than 1 million pounds of jet fuel in 2008.
- Reducing flight distances. Emirates, a Dubai-based airline, in December began routing its Dubai-to-San Francisco flights over the North Pole instead of through Asia. The more direct flight path saves about 2,000 gallons of fuel, Emirates says. (Emirates has experimented with creative fuel-saving solutions in the past. Last July the carrier banned in-flight magazines from its Airbus 380s in an effort to reduce aircraft weight.)
The global aviation industry accounts for 6% of fossil fuel consumption and 2% of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
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