Airbus pioneers sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world. The Company constantly innovates to provide the most efficient and technologically-advanced solutions in aerospace, defence, and connected services. In commercial aircraft, Airbus offers the most modern and fuel-efficient airliners. Airbus is also a European leader in defence and security and one of the world's leading space businesses. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide. Within ALBATROSS, Airbus is in charge of the overall project coordination and also of the work packages "Sustainable Aviation Fuels' (SAF) and “Performance and Benefits Assessment”. The project will take advantage of Airbus knowledge and expertise on systematic data collection, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. This will ensure and guarantee an objective measurability and the representativeness of the results increasing predictive accuracy. From Engineering Systems, Performance Engineering, Airlines Science to Public Affairs: all the Airbus teams are prepared to take up the challenge to pave the way for more efficient flights.
Air France as part of the Air France KLM group is a leader in the global air transport industry, with a strong European foundation. Air France's activities involve four main businesses coordinated by the Operations Control Center: passenger traffic, cargo traffic, maintenance and ground handling. Air France operates a fleet of 302 aircraft (as of 31 December 2019). Air France-KLM has carried more than 100 million passengers in 2019. Its dual network covers 312 destinations in 116 countries worldwide. Air France is committed to reducing its environmental impact and offering both its current and future customers a responsible and totally safe travel experience. For several years, the airline has been active in supporting and promoting the various aspects of sustainable development principles.
Air France has been involved in all SESAR activities since the very beginning (definition phase) and during the past decade has regularly and continuously provided strong contribution to the development the main SESAR solutions, by actively participating to the maturity development until the proof of concept and readiness to deployment.
The experience and expertise brought by Air France in the ALBATROSS project covers flight operations, performed by its ground and air staff on revenue flights, and coordination and project-management tasks. Air France will be particularly involved in demonstrating, in close cooperation with the other project participants, the integration and coexistence of multiple operational improvements that can reduce aviation environmental impact.
For ALBATROSS, special focus will be given to innovative concepts suitable for short-term deployment, in all phases of the flight and in all ATM processes, first and foremost in the French airspace and in the Paris platforms, CDG and Orly airports, but also in the numerous French airports served, as well as over its European and long-haul network.
Austro Control is one of Europe’s leading Air Navigation Service Providers and responsible for maintaining a safe, punctual, efficient and environmentally friendly flow of air traffic in Austrian airspace. Austro Control has a decade long experience in creating modern and sophisticated air navigation procedures, with special focus on environmental impacts. For Albatross Austro Control plays a key-role in organising and enabling flight trials within the Austrian FIR. Vienna international airport forms part of one of the identified city pairs, served by main project partners like Air France, Lufthansa Group or Wizzair. Both, in the EnRoute as well as Terminal area, different SESAR solutions (e.g. Free Route or PBN-to-ILS) have already and will be implemented to support the Green Flight philosophy in each phase. In addition, Austro Control contributes to the noise and emission calculation using ICAO, FAA and Eurocontrol certified software (AEDT, IMPACT). We support the definition and interpretation of KPIs as well as the gathering of final conclusions aiming for a more sustainable aviation. Furthermore, an active part involves the elaboration of the Concept of Operations with all project partners.
DLR is the Federal Republic of Germany’s research centre for aeronautics and space. We conduct research and development activities in the fields of aeronautics, space, energy, transport, security and digitalisation. The German Space Agency at DLR plans and implements the national space programme on behalf of the federal government. Two DLR project management agencies oversee funding programmes and support knowledge transfer.
Climate, mobility and technology are changing globally. DLR uses the expertise of its 54 research institutes and facilities to develop solutions to these challenges. Our 10,000 employees share a mission – to explore Earth and space and develop technologies for a sustainable future. In doing so, DLR contributes to strengthening Germany’s position as a prime location for research and industry.
With 1,000,000 sq. kms., DSNA, the French Air Navigation Service Provider, manages one of the largest and busiest airspaces in Europe. Its professionalism and its commitment will be essential to adapt, with its partners, its ATM modernisation strategy in the framework of the Single European Sky. Once air transport has returned to stable activity, the DSNA will be able to offer its customers an even better service, fully meeting their operational needs and in line with the environmental requirements that condition the development of our activity.
DSNA contributes to the ALBATROSS project by participating in several demonstration exercises. PBN to ILS at Paris-CDG will assess the feasibility of round-the-clock Continuous Descent Approaches in the context of independent parallel approaches. DSNA contribution also consists in improving penalized city pair(s) and evaluate the feasibility and improved performance with the objective to make it permanent. The SEPHER project, another contribution from DSNA, will demonstrate the ability to supply green electricity (hydrogen) to ground CNS equipment at Paris-CDG airport. All these initiatives contribute to reduce overall CO2 emissions in this VLD2 project.
EUROCONTROL is a pan-European, civil-military organisation whose mission is to support European aviation through its expertise in research, development, operations and performance monitoring. EUROCONTROL is committed to the European Union’s vision for a Single European Sky and supports their Member States and aviation stakeholders (including air navigation service providers, civil and military airspace users, airports and aircraft/equipment manufacturers) in a joint effort to make aviation in Europe safer, more efficient and cost-effective, with minimal environmental impact. EUROCONTROL delivers technical excellence and civil-military expertise across the full spectrum of air traffic management. Its activities touch on operations, service provision, concept development, research, Europe-wide project implementation, performance improvements, coordination with key aviation players at various levels as well as support to future evolution and strategic orientations of aviation. EUROCONTROL is a major contributor to the SESAR research programme and will continue to be so in the framework of SESAR 3. It has also unique and invaluable simulation facilities and expertise to support the validation of the airspace redesign needed as part of the Airspace Architecture Study and the validation of new concepts developed by the SESAR programme. EUROCONTROL has a pivotal role in the ALBATROSS project, which aims to develop a greener flights concept of operations, by identifying SESAR solutions that could contribute to it and examining how greener flight concept could be integrated into future Network Manager operations. EUROCONTROL is leading the development of gate-to-gate trials and the assessment of greener flights benefits at ECAC level. EUROCONTROL also contributes to the communication and dissemination activities of ALBATROSS.
Swedish ANS Provider LFV is involved in many research projects within the EU and aims to improve safety, efficiency as well as overall ATM services within the European airspace. LFV is involved in development of new operational concepts, procedures and technical aids in order to more efficiently use the airspace in the most efficient way addressing all airspace users. Another focus area for LFV is to better understand the environmental footprint of manned and unmanned aviation. LFV has high quality competence within many areas such as, Air Traffic Control, concept and operational development, Human performance, human-machine interaction and safety, but also within software development, and engineering. LFV contributes to the Albatross project by feasibility assessments and support to operational trials involving Swedish airspace focusing on new operational approach procedures in high density TMA environment.
The Lufthansa Group is an aviation group with operations worldwide. With 110,065 employees, the Lufthansa Group generated revenue of EUR 13,589m in the financial year 2020. The Lufthansa Group is composed of the segments Network Airlines, Eurowings and Aviation Services. Aviation Services comprises the segments Logistics, MRO, Catering and Additional Businesses and Group Functions. The latter also include Lufthansa AirPlus, Lufthansa Aviation Training and the IT companies. All segments occupy a leading position in their respective markets.
Within ALBATROSS, Lufthansa contributes to the task of optimizing traffic flows in TMA`s of airports by providing state of the art trajectory analysis based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. This will be demonstrated in the TMA’s of CGN/DUS and FRA. Firstly, the highly complex multiple dependencies in these areas will be analyzed and bottlenecks identified. Secondly, based on these findings, optimization measures will be derived and implemented. The analysis and demonstration will be supported by the DFS.
NOVA AIRLINES (NOVAIR) provide air travelling for Scandinavian passengers with leisure and holiday destinations. Preliminary Mediterranean and Canary Island resorts. Since 2017, Novair operates two Airbus 321 state-of-the-art aircraft, with latest avionics in terms of CNS, for example RNP AR and FANS C capabilities. For more than a decade, NOVAIR has also worked actively with environmental topics, both directly with advanced in-house fuel saving initiatives and more indirectly via involvement in numerous research projects, both locally and regionally as well as European level.
NOVAIR main contributions to ALBATROSS is to coordinate WP2 (CONOPS) together with operational and theoretical expertise and also to be a main actor conducting flight trails within the Scandinavian network throughout the project lifetime.
Smart Airport Systems (SAS), an Alvest Group Company, strives for excellence in its mission to provide sustainable solutions for aviation. Its three major objectives are the generation of fuel savings to Airlines, the reduction of noise and polluting emissions and operational efficiency at Airports. SAS innovative products, incorporate the latest unique technologies in the aviation industry, enabling Airlines and Airports to improve their operational efficiencies, whilst paving the way for a greener future.
SAS will, together with Schiphol (SNBV), plan and execute trails regarding the engine-off solution. This is one of the few measures that can be taken in the short term to reduce aviation emissions. Several runs aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of sustainable taxiing from gate to runway (vv.) under several weather conditions and peak hours for narrow body planes (A320) and (B737). While at the gate, APU usage of the AC is the most polluting element which influence human working conditions at the aircraft stand. SAS will secure that at the gate, solutions will be deployed that ensure APU usage is not required, drastically reducing emissions in that phase to an absolute minimum.
Royal Schiphol Group is an enterprise that operates airports in the Netherlands, conducts international activities and participates in airports abroad. Operating Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the Group's largest activity. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol welcomed 20.9 million passengers in 2020 and processed 1.4 million tonnes of cargo. With its 316 direct destinations all over the world, Schiphol offers one of the best destination and frequencies networks in Europe. Royal Schiphol Group is the owner and operator of Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Lelystad Airport, and holds a majority share in Eindhoven Airport. By 2050, Royal Schiphol Group aims to operate the most sustainable airports in the world. In the coming decades we will focus on 4 themes: energy positive, circular economy, sustainable aviation and communities. Our goal for 2030 is that our airports are waste and emission free, CO2 emissions from aviation are at 2005 levels and there is a better balance between our airports and the communities around us. By 2050, our airports will be circular and energy-positive, the aviation sector will be carbon-neutral, and it will be pleasant to live and work around our airports. We remain committed to sustainability and innovation, even during the coronavirus crisis. Coming back improved is the norm.
Royal Schiphol Group contributes to the ALBATROSS project with our knowlegde about susustainabe taxiing. During sustainable taxiing, planes do not use their engines to get to and from the runway, instead they use an alternative power source such as the TaxiBot. This saves kerosene and therefore leads to at least 50% lower emissions. Sustainable taxiing can therefore contribute to reducing CO2 and nitrogen. During the project Schiphol will see several TaxiBots coming to the airport.
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is Switzerland’s largest airline. Operating one of Europe’s youngest and most fuel-efficient aircraft fleets, SWISS provides direct flights from Zurich and Geneva that keep Switzerland connected with Europe and the world.
In close cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) it is our objective to demonstrate the reduction of fuel in an optimized vertical descent profile with the support of LNAS. The demonstration will be included in the daily operation and in collaboration with multiple stakeholder at Zurich Airport.
LNAS is a pilot assistance system developed by DLR to help pilots optimise approaches in terms of fuel consumption and noise emissions by predicting the optimal vertical flight path as well as the ideal speed, flap configuration and landing gear sequence. During the approach, the recommendations given by LNAS are conducted by the pilots to obtain the energy-optimal profile at any given time. LNAS runs as a demonstrator on a trial device and uses real-time flight data.
For easier, safer and greener flights
In Aerospace, governments, airports, pilots, crews and passengers rely on Thales to make flight safer, easier and greener.
We do this by designing, delivering and supporting the systems that keep our skies running. From nose-to-tail aircraft connectivity and in-flight services, we enable and connect all parts of the avionics ecosystem in the air, on the ground, and in-between.
By creating secured, natively connected systems and by putting the crew and the mission at the heart of the design, we provide the solutions and services to fly the aircraft that are capable of generating better and higher efficiencies through on-board data driven intelligent solution.
THALES AVS contributes to the ALBATROSS project as a Flight Management System manufacturer. By using FMS-based tools, we will be able to replay baseline, greener and optimum flights and to evaluate environmental gains of greener and optimum flights.
The funding of the project is provided by the EU under the Grant Agreement No 101017678.
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