Air New Zealand wants to be the world’s most environmentally sustainable airline, reports IAN JARRETT

WHEN AVIATION’S HIGHEST FLIERS gathered in Hong Kong for the Greener Skies conference in October last year, one of their number left them in no doubt that he was frustrated by the drawn-out climate change debate.

Rob Fyfe, chief executive of Air New Zealand (ANZ), said the environment is losing out in the face of too much unproductive hot air expended while arguing emission reduction targets.

Fyfe and his colleagues know the clock is ticking for airlines and their response to climate change. As part of Europe’s efforts to reduce harmful emissions of greenhouse gases, from January 2012 all aircraft operators flying to and from EU destinations will be subject to mandatory CO2 emissions reductions.

The aviation industry has set itself a voluntary target of reducing fuel efficiency by 1.5% per annum between now and 2020. And from 2020, the industry has committed to become carbon neutral, which means that even if air traffic grows, overall emissions will remain stable.

But even that is not enough for some. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) argues that if left unchecked, global aviation emissions could account for 15-20% of all CO2 produced in 2050. It wants emissions capped to ensure they are no higher than 2005 levels in the period to 2050.

The airlines are looking long and hard for solutions to cut emissions and save fuel through ASPIRE (Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions), created by Airservices Australia, ANZ and the US Federal Aviation Administration. ASPIRE is testing the carbon reduction potential of making improvements to operational procedures.

The ASPIRE group has undertaken a series of trans-Pacific test flights in partnership with Qantas, ANZ, United Airlines and Japan Airlines, using priority take-off clearance, the opening up of restricted airspace and new arrival procedures – all of which are possible with the latest technology. Results to date have been encouraging.

Airlines are also experimenting with biofuels – ANZ is a leader here, too – and challenging manufacturers to deliver a 30% fuel efficiency gain in the next generation of narrow body jets.

With regard to when a commercial aircraft will actually take off with biofuel, ANZ’s deputy chief executive Norm Thompson says his airline is talking years not decades. “Biofuel is still going through a certi? cation process… and the challenge for us is finding sufficient feedstock to create the biofuel here in New Zealand. We’d be initially looking to use the biofuel in our domestic operations. As the technology develops, this could be extended into international operations.”

ANZ is investing in other emissions-reduction steps: the airline has installed winglets on four of its long-haul Boeing 767-300ER jets and will be fitting them on the domestic/trans-Tasman A320s by 2012. The use of auxiliary power units have been reduced; fuel burn is being minimised through centre-of-gravity optimisation; and just-intime fuelling (topping up the fuel tank halfan-hour before take-off) is now employed.

One question CONNECT had for ANZ’s top brass was how much of their policy is dictated by the famously eco-aware Kiwi government? Thompson says: “We’ve chosen to be a leader in this area, so policy is 99% internal. However, we are about to have a legally binding emissions trading scheme in New Zealand – it’s therefore in our interest, cost-wise, to run our aircraft more efficiently and burn less fuel.”

In the lead up to December 2009’s

UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, the aviation industry has made its position clear, telling governments that setting emission targets is all very well but they come with responsibility. Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, says: “We can fly the planes efficiently, but governments must deliver improvements in air traffic management… and with infrastructure investments, to make it achievable.” – Additional reporting by Peter Myers