Working in partnership

Aviation’s sustainability performance is heavily dependent upon collaboration and shared delivery that involves airlines, airports, manufacturers and ATC providers; working collectively we can deliver more than we can alone.

We therefore continue to work with industry partners to find new and quicker ways of implementing environmental solutions. These partnerships are evident across a wide variety of our contacts and interfaces.

Flight Efficiency Partnership

Over the last few years NATS has hosted a series of airline workshops to discuss operational efficiency. Last year, a new Flight Efficiency Partnership (FEP) was set up as a sub-group of our Operational Partnership Agreement (OPA) to provide a regular forum for NATS and airlines to work together to develop and deliver quick win improvements to flight efficiency.

The group’s focus has been on agreeing the shorter term improvements that can be made in and around UK airspace, as well as exploring opportunities for working together to ensure the most effective use of airspace. This year, the FEP has identified some 14 new opportunities to reduce fuel burn and emissions in NATS airspace. These opportunities are now logged in our dedicated database (The Airspace Efficiency Database) and will be worked through by the NATS Flight Efficiency teams at Swanwick and Prestwick centres – where they are being evaluated for operational viability and emissions benefits.

Future Airspace Strategy (FAS)

FAS describes the UK’s ambition to modernise the airspace system – in particular the airspace structure, the routes aircraft fly and the procedures used to manage the flow of traffic. The FAS Industry Implementation Group (FASIIG) is a joint undertaking between CAA, NATS, IAA, airlines, airports, MOD, business aviation and other aviation industry stakeholders.

FASIIG is linking our major airspace and ATC technology programmes with industry investment plans into an industry-wide deployment plan. This work is a major opportunity to provide a new foundation for future airspace design to support sustainable growth in the industry, in particular the opportunity for significant environmental benefits from optimising aircraft performance. Our major airspace and technology programmes have formed a key role in the development of the cross-industry FAS Deployment Plan to join up airspace initiatives across Aircraft Operators, Airports and the Regulator. We expect significant environmental benefits from:

• Implementing a fundamentally more efficient route structure in terminal airspace designed to satellite based precision navigation (PBN) standards.
• Sequencing the flow of inbound traffic to reduce stack holding and enable aircraft to approach airports quietly and efficiently.
• The goal of allowing aircraft to climb continuously on departure from take-off to cruise.
• Removing fixed airspace structures and pinch points in the upper airspace across the UK and Ireland FAB to allow for more direct routes and efficient flight profiles.

Sustainable Aviation

We were among the founding members of the Sustainable Aviation coalition in 2005, and we continue to devote significant effort to this important and unique industry partnership. Over the past year NATS has been a key contributor to:

• A continuous descent operations (CDO) action plan targeting more than 30,000 additional aircraft movements that will use this technique to reduce noise and emissions on approach to airports in the UK. This collaborative programme has the potential to save around £2m in fuel costs overall and reduce noise by 1 to 5 decibels per arrival.
• Development and publication of a Noise Road-Map for UK Aviation out to 2050 setting out how the aviation industry believes through reduction of aircraft noise at source, operational procedures, land use planning, community engagement and operating restrictions noise can be limited and reduced in the UK, despite growing traffic levels. NATS sponsored the Noise Road-Map in Sustainable Aviation and the document sets out detailed options that NATS can deploy with other partners to reduce noise around airports.

ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP)

NATS continues to use the expertise developed in the Acting Responsibly programme to advise the UK State representative at CAEP and to support the ‘Operations’ working group within CAEP. Specifically, NATS is supporting the Operations working group in preparing:

• Guidance material to support States, airports, ANSPs and airlines in addressing community concerns about the noise and emissions impacts of aviation
• A web-based repository of information about how trade-offs between environmental impacts (e.g. noise vs. emissions) should be managed, as well as guidance on how environmental impacts can be balanced with non-environmental issues such as capacity and delay
• A compendium of best practice environmental assessments, to assist States in compiling their State Environmental Action Plans
• Detailed environmental benefits analysis of ICAO’s Aviation System Block Upgrades programme, to be adopted by States under the Global Air Navigation Plan

Working With Communities, Airports and Airlines on Noise

We’re very aware of the impact aircraft noise has on those who live under flight paths. That’s why we work with airports and airlines to help them minimise the effect of noise. Last year we started a trial at Heathrow designed to provide defined periods of noise respite to people living directly under the flight path. The concept was formed in partnership with the noise community group HACAN, British Airways and the airport itself.

The trial, which concluded in March 2013, was focused on the early morning period and had defined zones in the approach area above London and over Berkshire that were ‘active’ sequentially week by week. Pilots were directed by our controllers to avoid flying through the zone that was active for that particular week to give predictable respite from the noise of overflying aircraft. The trial was the first of its kind and while the results were mixed, some perceiving benefits, others not, the learning is informing an on-going programme of trials.

Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO)

CANSO is the global trade association for ANSPs where we are working in the Environment Work Group to develop a global understanding of how ATM can limit aviation’s environmental impact and to exchange best practice on improving environmental performance. In 2013 took the lead in a task to benchmark ANSP estate carbon footprints. We are now looking to develop metrics to evaluate where best practice is most effective at driving down the footprint of air traffic service provision. In the coming year this work will deliver a guidebook for CANSO members on evaluating their carbon footprints with practical advice and real life examples of where carbon reductions can be targeted.