Recently in Airlines Category

Well I suppose the headline above is pretty well guaranteed to spark the critics into action, but the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group launched by Boeing, Honeywell, a group of ten airlines, and two environmental groups has had a remarkably neutral reception. In the tinderbox of the aviation environmental debate that's quite a success.

Another noteworthy feature of this project is that it was kept quiet until launch - also quite a feat in the leaky aviation world. The two points may not be unconnected. Obviously the new group now has to deliver, but in the short term it's difficult to argue with its aims, and opponents may just be drawing breath.

Meanwhile, I've scoured the blogosphere and just about nobody has a rude word to say about it - for now. This blog is from Liz Barratt-Brown at the Natural Resources Defense Counsel (NRDC) which is one of the partners in the group - but it's an interesting viewpoint all the same.

Regular readers will know it's an article of faith for me that improved air traffic management is the only way that aviation is going to improve its environmental act to any meaningful extent in the near future. Part of that needs to be the widespread adoption of what's called required navigation performance (RNP) techniques. And it's starting to happen.

After I posted below about SAS' large number of Boeing MD-80s being something of an embarrassment to its green credentials, I noticed this lengthy discussion in the Dallas Morning News about American Airlines' similar dilemma. Our ACAS database shows that American has 300 of the type on its books. It's not thrilled about their fuel-burn, but it's not thrilled about replacing them with anything before the next-generation narrowbody from Boeing and Airbus comes along. I'm afraid this sort of thing is a very real obstacle to airlines making the kind of medium-term change that really would cut their emissions.

I have a degree of respect for SAS' environmental activity - they've been working at most of the issues for longer and more seriously than just about any other carrier. And they've been putting their money where their mouth is.