Switching to new flight paths at certain airports could save airline companies money while also slashing carbon emissions and cutting flight times, according to a study from GE Aviation.

“Highways in the Sky” finds that airlines could save $65.6 million a year by implementing the new flight paths at just 46 mid-size airports.

The study has important implications in the current debate on the future of the ageing national air traffic control infrastructure, where additional investment is increasingly measured against proven benefits to the economy, environment and the everyday traveller.

GE Aviation looked at both the economic and environmental benefits of near-term deployment of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) landing approaches.  For the 46 airports studied, the switch would yield an annual savings of 12.9 million gallons of jet fuel, equivalent to 527 round-trip flights from New York to Los Angeles. In addition to the money it would save airline companies, the system would also cut carbon emissions by 274.6 million pounds. GE notes the system could be incorporated into other airports beyond those studied.

There are plenty of reasons for improving the efficiency of flights both within the US and around the globe: rising fuel costs, increasing pressure to cut carbon emissions and the growing total number of flights.

“This is an opportunity to provide tangible benefits to every stakeholder; responsible growth of an essential industry, better asset utilisation, lower fuel burn and cost for airlines, greater throughput for airports and ANSPs (air navigation service providers), fewer delays for passengers, lower emissions and noise for communities and reduced dependence on foreign oil,” said Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO of GE Aviation Systems.

The RNP system improves the efficiency of flights by allowing aircraft to fly precisely-defined trajectories without relying on outdated, ground-based radio navigation signals currently in place. The independence from a fixed, ground-based infrastructure, linked with the inherent precision of satellite navigation and advanced computer technology aboard the aircraft, allow the creation of short, more consistent and more efficient flight paths.

“There is no reason the US aviation industry should be tied to a ground-based beacon system that was developed in the 1940s,” said Brian Will, director of airspace modernisation and advanced technologies for American Airlines.

The pressing need to update the outdated US flight infrastructure means the implementation of the system should be swift, according to the study. Rapidly increasing demand is placing ever-more pressure on the current infrastructure, with domestic air travel expected to double in the next 20 years. In the US alone, traffic is projected to reach the 1 billion passenger mark by 2021, according to the Federation Aviation Administration (FAA). RNP’s deployment in many other locations around the world is leaving the US behind at a time when cost savings are more important than ever.

While policy-makers and corporations weigh the long-term costs and benefits of efficiency-boosting infrastructure improvements, quick-to-deploy systems like RNP can start generating much-needed results on a shorter time scale.

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