International pilots across parts of south-east Asia and the Pacific will be able to choose their own flight paths in a trial aimed at saving fuel and reducing travel times.
Airservices Australia is working with air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and airlines here and in New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore to trial an initiative that will allow pilots on select flights to choose their own routes to take advantage of prevailing winds.
Airservices Australia Interim CEO Rob Sharp the move would help reduce carbon emissions in the aviation sector.
Mr Sharp said the four ANSPs, as well as national flag carriers Qantas, Air New Zealand, Garuda and Singapore Airlines have partnered to trial user-preferred routing (UPR), from this week, on 38 different scheduled routes between Australian/New Zealand and Indonesian/Singaporean airspace.
He said UPR was already used in Australian-managed airspace over the Pacific and Indian oceans and across large areas of upper airspace across Australia.
“Until now, its use on international routes has been limited due to the complexity of coordinating routes across international airspace boundaries and with airspace managed by different ANSPs.”
Mr Sharp said UPR was estimated to save around 100kg of fuel for a flight between Denpasar and Melbourne, or 26 tonnes over the course of a year when flying the route five times per week.
“(That’s) equivalent to more than 82 tonnes of carbon emissions annually for that route alone.
“Working with airlines to enable them to reduce emissions is central to our environment and sustainability strategy, aligned to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Long-Term Aspirational Goal for the global aviation sector to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” he said.
Mr Sharp said, subject to operator feedback, Airservices Australia would look to operationalise the trial and expand UPR to include more city pairs and airlines.
