Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Juppe. That was a wonderful job of
framing the issue that brings us here today. The Minister’s
observations are absolutely right on point. Without question,
preserving the environment is a task that falls to each of us. Each
side of the Atlantic needs to take steps to manage the emissions of
its own airlines.
The good news in the US is that our airlines are producing 10
million tons less of CO2 than we did in 2000 even though passenger
and cargo counts are up considerably. And even though aviation
represents less than three percent of the world’s greenhouse
gas emissions, it's imperative that we still push to do more. We
are.
At the very heart of our NextGen plan, we're taking a
comprehensive and systematic approach to reducing the footprint. We
are getting the science right.
The initiative that we're announcing
today is one more step in the right direction. AIRE -- A-I-R-E, the
Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions -- is all
about fresh air. You know, the lesson of aviation safety is that
everyone needs to pull in the same direction. Today, we're
emphasizing that the same is true with respect to the environment.
Through AIRE, we're joining forces across the ocean -- government,
industry, airlines, manufacturers, and service providers -- to pull
in the same direction.
The AIRE partnership represents a lot of work that we've been
doing separately; but now we're doing it together. This partnership
will be used to develop operational procedures to reduce our
environmental footprint. It will accelerate environmentally
friendly procedures and standards. AIRE will capitalize on existing
technology and best practices. And AIRE will help us achieve each
of these with a systematic approach.
Make no mistake about this the reach of AIRE is quite broad:
Literally, the focus of AIRE is gate-to-gate. We want to take every
opportunity to whittle away at a carbon footprint that's already
low. Every place we can make a difference, we will.
First and foremost, we'll use trajectory-based operations on the
ground to minimize aircraft run time. That means the jets will get
from the gate to the runway as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Imagine a town without the need for streetlights because all of the
car movements were synchronized. That's what I'm talking about.
After takeoff comes collaborative oceanic trajectory
optimization, which promises major fuel reduction at cruise.
Heading into the destination, we'll be using oceanic tailored
arrivals, a low power, continuous descent approach that has planes
gliding smoothly in to the runway with minimal power. That cuts
fuel, noise and emissions. That could save as much as a ton of CO2
per flight. That's like planting a tree with each flight.
We'll begin field trials of these different elements on new
routes between our countries later this year. On the US side, we'll
include projects like continuous descent approach at Atlanta with
multiple airlines. We also will develop a coastal tailored arrivals
program for flights into Miami.
You'll hear from some of our industry partners on the United
States side this morning but we'll also include UPS and others as
we expand the AIRE partnership and the work program is refined.
In closing, I can't say it any more plainly: aviation does
indeed need to make a statement, and AIRE will do it. When you
slice time and fuel, the natural by-product is a reduction in
greenhouse gases. When you do it in collaboration across the ocean,
you magnify the results. In a few years, we're going to look back
at this effort as a model for how to get it done.
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