Aviation sector vows to make Europe’s skies ‘truly sustainable’

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Major aviation organisations across Europe have issued an industry declaration vowing to “take joint action” to making flying more environmentally friendly in line with the EU’s Green Deal decarbonisation goals.

Airline organisations IATA, A4E (Airlines For Europe) and European Regions Airline Association, as well as airport body ACI Europe and Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) are among those groups to sign the new declaration. 

The overall intention is to “make Europe the most efficient and environmentally friendly sky to fly in the world” by transforming the sector through measures such as the optimisation of the European air traffic management (ATM) system.

“With European passenger traffic set to recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2024, digital innovation in ATM can improve efficiency and provide the capacity to meet this projected demand, while at the same time realising considerable CO2 savings,” said the aviation groups in a joint statement. 

“This transformation will be achieved by deploying new digital tools developed under the EU’s Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR).”

The first step in this process will be for all the associations to work together to update the EU ATM Master Plan, which forms a “common roadmap” for SESAR.

“The effects of non-CO2 emissions will have to be addressed in the European ATM Master Plan, to evaluate impact and possible solutions as co-operative tools allowing to take them into account in the way we manage flight plans and flights capacity,” added the organisations in their declaration.

Improving air traffic control around Europe is seen as one of the quickest ways to cut emissions from flights, alongside more long-term solutions such as the increasing production and use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and the development of zero-emission aircraft.

“Only a shared European roadmap connecting development and deployment with a strong sense of priorities will help us bring forward the necessary changes as quickly as possible, and make a real difference for citizens, the European industrial competitiveness and the future,” summed up the organisations in their declaration.

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