Airways New Zealand to Measure Benefits of Optimum-Descent Arrivals

New Zealand's ANSP (air navigation services provider), Airways New Zealand, will conduct a trial at Auckland International Airport in April to gather fuel-burn data, and other information, to help it and airlines measure the benefits of using only idle power while descending from cruise altitudes to the commencement of final approach.

Airways New Zealand says the purpose of the trial is to establish the actual fuel burn for an arriving flight where there is no requirement for any controller intervention, and to gauge the potential fuel savings and associated emission reductions.

Lew Jenkins, the ANSP's main trunk manager, says the trial will involve Air New Zealand and Qantas, who have already been working with the ANSP on its procedures.  Auckland was chosen for the evaluation because Auckland has a higher percentage of jet traffic than other airports, and a higher percentage of international to domestic traffic than other locations.

During the trial, Airways will be looking in detail at what constitutes an optimum arrival, and "how much emphasis can be placed on chasing best fuel burn," Mr. Jenkins said.  "From the trial we will be able to accurately gauge the impact this has on on-time performance and runway capacity and how accurately flights can arrive at an allocated time to provide spacing from other aircraft."

"The airlines have plenty of detail on how their aircraft need to fly in order to burn the minimum amount of fuel, especially on the arrival segment, but traditionally this has been balanced by an air traffic control imperative driven primarily by on-time performance and runway capacity," Mr. Jenkins added.

The trial needs to happen in real time and in real conditions because simulators aren't able to provide data to the level of accuracy that Airways requires.  "The subtle vagaries of the weather in particular, are only able to be produced in a simulator in crude blocks," according to Jenkins.

Only aircraft flown by Air New Zealand and a Qantas B-747 flight arriving at Auckland during times when other traffic is light will be involved in the trial, to keep disruptions at a minimum for non-participating aircraft, because the trial aircraft will be given a priority similar to a medical flight.  "They will fly the full arrival procedure at pre-agreed speeds and descent profiles, and they will not be given any speed control or level restrictions by air traffic control on their arrival," Mr. Jenkins said.

Similar trials have been conducted at Melbourne and Amsterdam and another is being run currently at San Francisco.  03-28-2007.

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