A second aircraft manufacturer will now begin testing green approaches to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. Airbus will partner with LFV and SAS International to test a concept that saves fuel, reduces environmental pollution and saves money − and does this so successfully that LFV is now making it a permanent practice.
The Airbus tests are occurring in three rounds, starting this past Saturday morning December 8, when a Scandinavian Airlines’ flight arriving from New York applied a Continuous Descent Approach, or “green approach”. According to plans, further tests will continue in the spring of 2008.
A green approach means that an aircraft glides down from its cruise altitude to its approach path before landing at an airport, resulting in lower fuel consumption, emissions and noise.
“We at LFV are glad to provide another aircraft manufacturer the technical support needed to implement green approaches. The more aircraft that can use such approaches, the better for the environment in all respects,” says Niclas Gustavsson, Business Developer at the Air Navigation Services (ANS) Division of LFV, the state enterprise that operates Sweden’s major airports.
The tests that have been under way for more than a year and a half have utilised modern Boeing 737 aircraft. They have been successful. Around 2,000 green approaches have taken place and have demonstrated good environmental effects.
By applying a green approach, the saving in an Airbus A330 − the aircraft type that is now being newly tested − is about 150 kilograms of fuel and 470 kilos of carbon dioxide.
“The tests conducted to date have been so successful that LFV has now decided to make green approaches a permanent practice where technically possible and taking other air traffic into account,” Mr Gustavsson says.
For more information, please contact:
Niclas Gustavsson, Business Developer, ANS, mobile 0708-69 32 59
Per Fröberg, Press Officer, Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, mobile 0708-79 26 35