40 GREEN PAGES


Victory for the Greens - but woe for independents


Green MEPs have been celebrating the European Parliament’s decision to reject the proposed liberalisation of ground handling at European airports. The voting took place following extensive discussions on the comprehensive package of measures aimed at addressing capacity shortages, along with reductions in noise at European airports and improvements in the quality of services offered to passengers. That said, the party expressed regret at the package that will see expanding airport capacity, stating that this would be at the expense of citizens’ interests, social standards and the environment. The Green transport spokesperson, Eva Lichtenberger, admitted that the proposals did not address the concerns over social and employment standards. “Bad working conditions for ground handlers undermine the quality of services, with unacceptable consequences on safety and security. Further undermining working conditions is against the interests of both workers and passengers.” Not all were happy at the result, however. The ASA expressed its disappointment at what it sees as a missed opportunity in terms of further opening up the European handling arena. Elsewhere, Athar Husain Khan, Acting Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines, was also critical of the ground handling decision. He said: “As a result of parliament’s decision, the ground handling market will remain limited to only two suppliers at some of the largest European airports, thereby protecting existing monopolies and depriving both passengers and airlines of more efficient and competitive ground handling services. AEA also regrets that the parliament failed to recognise the value of the air transport sector for the European economy by privileging operating restrictions to address noise at European airports. “The same environmental benefits could be achieved through measures that do not further aggravate the capacity crunch.”


China Airlines’ five year solution


China Airlines has signed a five-year OnPointSM Fuel & Carbon Solutions agreement with GE Aviation. Under this agreement, GE’s Fuel & Carbon Solutions team will use proprietary decision software and fuel consulting expertise to help China Airlines identify and track operational improvements that could reduce the airline’s fuel bill by an average of 2-3% overall.


GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL FEBRUARY 2013


Since 2007, an inter-departmental fuel management task force at China Airlines has been working to produce fuel savings in flight operations. In all, nearly 30 fuel saving measures have been developed: these encompass operational planning, flight operations, aircraft maintenance and process control. In terms of energy resource conservation, the carrier’s target for 2012 was that of a reduction in carbon emissions to the tune of 11,000 tonnes. The statistics add up: today, fuel typically accounts for about 30% of an airline’s outlay. This fact, coupled with the volatility that has been experienced by the sector in connection with fuel prices over the last three years, means that carriers are looking for ways to manage this major portion of their cost base more effectively. Part of GE’s ecomagination portfolio, Fuel & Carbon Solutions is designed to deliver results through a three-step process. These comprise operational evaluation, in which data on the airline’s current fuel and carbon reduction programmes is collected and quantified. This permits the formulation of a customised solution design that seeks to further analyse data in order to isolate and prioritise potential improvements. Finally comes implementation support and verification: here, GE works with the customer to implement change, and subsequently measure and validate the savings.


Carbon neutral across entire ten airport network


In October 2012, Sweden’s national airport group, Swedavia was awarded the distinction of becoming the world’s first national airport group to achieve carbon neutrality across its portfolio of ten airports.


carbon offsets for any remaining CO2 emissions under their control.


engage others at their airports to reduce their CO2


in turn and, finally, purchase


The airports in question collectively welcome over 31m passengers a year. In order to attain the Neutrality Level of certification within the Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme, these stations have had to reduce their own CO2


emissions,


to establish a Chinese airworthiness certification for alternative aviation fuels made from locally grown feedstocks. The certified fuel will be produced by Sinopec using its own technology in a newly-built refinery in Hangzhou, near Shanghai. The refinery is one of the few in the world that has the capacity to produce aviation fuel from biomass on a large scale.


Airbus is supporting the development of the Chinese standard with technical expertise gained in past certification processes with the European Union and US fuels standards bodies and in the selection of sustainable feedstocks. “Biofuel is becoming increasingly important in aviation and the energy market. It will help aviation grow sustainably as its demand for fuel increases. Sinopec has developed its own technology for producing aviation fuel from biomass and waste oil and has already produced aviation fuel meeting international standards. Sinopec is assisting the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) in the airworthiness certification process and is proud to be collaborating with Airbus and other partners in the push for alternative aviation fuels,” said a Sinopec spokesperson.


In addition to fuel certification, the partners are also establishing a sustainable alternative fuel value chain in China, to help speed up its commercialisation: this will use 100% domestic resources and refining capabilities. For its part, Airbus currently supports alternative fuel value chains in Australia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.


Volvo buses to benefit from green opening


SKF recently announced the delivery of the new SKF Bus Door Actuator, an actuator system that enables smooth opening and closing of bus doors, to Volvo Buses. Developed in co-operation with the afore-mentioned vehicle manufacturer, the SKF Bus Door Actuator requires 80-90% less energy than a pneumatic door system, which reduces the vehicle’s fuel consumption by around 2%. This reduction equates to a savings of 1.9 tonnes of CO2


per year when


Joint venture to explore biofuel production in China


Late last year, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), one of China’s biggest energy companies, and Airbus, came together with the aim of developing and promoting renewable aviation fuel production for regular commercial use in China.


Sinopec is the instrumental partner in helping the central government


compared to a bus using pressurised air to open and close the doors. This innovative development is a sustainable mechatronics solution for the bus segment and the solution could be compared with reducing the weight of the bus by around 500-700 kilogrammes.


The SKF Bus Door Actuator is manufactured in Gothenburg and delivery of the components was set to begin in the first quarter of 2013.


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