• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

US says China can greatly cut airline fuel use

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 06:06 CDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China could greatly improve its airlines' fuel efficiency by learning from the U.S. experience in introducing more flexible air traffic management, a senior U.S. aviation official said on Wednesday.

Robert Sturgell, deputy administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, outlined initiatives that had saved U.S. airlines millions of dollars in fuel bills, including introducing greater flexibility between civil and military airspace.

He also cited satellite navigation systems that allowed for more direct routes and an air traffic management system that permitted more high-altitude flights as advances from which China could benefit.

Sturgell's remarks, given at a news conference, followed meetings with Chinese aviation officials on Tuesday, during which he encouraged them to explore innovations in air traffic management that could effect great fuel savings.

The U.S. Department of Transportation had set a goal of cutting the fuel burned in each kilometer (mile) of flight by 1 percent a year through to 2009, which would save U.S. airlines around $2 billion in annual fuel costs, Sturgell said.

And an important factor to reaching that goal would come from greater flexibility in the allocation of airspace between civil and military use, he said, even in the United States, where more than 80 percent of airspace is for civil use.

"The U.S. government made a decision years ago to allocate the largest share of total U.S. airspace for civil aviation use," Sturgell said.

China makes much less of its airspace available for civil use, but it has begun to open up further.

The International Air Transport Association, the global industry's club, said on Monday China would this week open new routes through its airspace that would cut flying time between Europe and the big cities on its eastern seaboard by half an hour.

The association said the routes to be opened on April 13 could initially benefit 110 flights a week and save airlines millions of dollars in fuel bills.

The association, which had been negotiating with Beijing on the new routes for over five years, says that only 30 percent of China's airspace has been open to civil aviation.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category