One of the SESAR Exploratory Research projects in which the Aircraft Operations Lab has participated to address the climate impact of aviation is FlyATM4E. The project studied flight data during different weather scenarios, as well as vertical and horizontal flight paths, to identify climate-optimised aircraft trajectories. The optimisation process showed a potential reduction of non-CO2 emissions from 20 to 50% as a result of small flight deviations. The economic impact thereof is estimated at less than 4% of direct operational costs.
Further details about the FlyATM4E project are provided in the April SESAR JU e-news, explaining how polygons, graphs, and maps at different flight levels are used to show areas most likely to produce a large climate effect (in terms of the global surface temperature over the next 20 years). “This is a SESAR success story because for the first time we’ve been able to encapsulate climate change information into an open-source library, available for anyone to access,” says the project leader, Sigrun Matthes.
Manuel Soler, Director of the PhD Program in Aerospace Engineering at the Carlos III University of Madrid, also appears in the article to explain the FlyATM4E in a video-interview: