We are happy to announce that we have concluded the first part of our analysis. As a result, we identified preliminary key performance indicators and operational improvements to mitigate the impact of aviation on climate. During the last months, our partners directed their joint effort to determine a preliminary list of potential innovative measures to reduce the climate impact of aviation.

What does “operation” mean?

In the context of aviation, it describes a broad range of activities that regard the whole flight process. For example, some of them relate to the aircraft flight, or to the Air Traffic Management systems (ATMs), or else to the organization of airports activities, and so on. When thinking of aviation operations, you should picture all the actions linked to the aeroplane industry, from manufacturing to airlines.

ClimOP works on the procedural aspects of the aviation industry. For this reason, the project has the opportunity to re-think how aircraft are operated, and therefore to find more sustainable ways to operate them, without necessarily introducing new technologies. As a result, this allows the aviation sector to tackle climate change without additional expenses.

Which are the results?

ClimOP has identified a set of greener aviation procedures, distributed in four areas:

  • Climate-optimised operations of the Airline Network: e.g. intermediate stop-over.
  • Climate-optimised Trajectories: e.g. the climate-optimised approach procedures.
  • Operational and Infrastructural measures on the ground: e.g. efficient taxiing, electrification of ground equipment, and renewable energy production.
  • Operational measures at a regulatory level: e.g. additional taxes and higher fees limiting “climate unfriendly” aircraft operations.

Finally, the ClimOP team has identified a preliminary set of Key Performance Indicators to rank the selected operational improvements. The KPIs consider the climate impact of each improvement and the stakeholders’ needs for operations, business and economic constraints, safety and human performance aspects, and so on.

Attribution to the cover image: Kreativeart, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons