Singapore Airlines announced yesterday that on January 31st, it had completed “the world’s first multi-sector demonstration green flight.” 10 tons of fuel (and 33 tons of carbon emissions) were saved on Flight 11, which flew from Los Angeles to Tokyo and then to Singapore with a Boeing 747-400. The fuel savings represent a six percent reduction in consumption. To put that in perspective, after 17 flights, the 18th is “free” in terms of fuel. Yes, being green is great, but moves like these can also help airline financially – which is a good motivator to start caring about this stuff.
So what did the airline do to save that fuel? These are all options we’ve seen before, like engine washing, using ground power instead of the APU, using a more efficient routing, a continuous descent approach, and a few others, as well.
Photo Credit: Singapore Airlines.
For those who are very interested in how “green” the industry can become, flights like these are a small, but important step. Long-term solutions will require a concerted effort from airframers, engine manufactures, and firms working on alternative energy sources. But acquiring new aircraft is a big financial commitment for airlines, while many of these solutions attempted/implemented by Singapore and others can be implemented on the existing fleet, and can actually improve airlines’ financial performance.
wow, this is really awesome!
flying green, reduction of fuel is like one of most important
consideration in so many ways.
i’ve been listening ‘airplane geeks podcast’ for about a month,
and this is my first visiting to ur blog.
indeed, a lot of interesting things to read here!
thanx for upload good stuff!
from South Korea.