American and European aviation officials pledged to extend the flight demonstrations conducted under the Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE) into regular, daily operations.

“We will perform new trials in 2010, and the intent there is to move from trials to day-to-day operations,” said Carey J. Fagan, director of International Strategy & Performance with FAA’s Air Traffic Organization.

The latest results of AIRE, an agreement between FAA and the European Commission launched at the Paris Air Show in June 2007, were presented March 9 at the ATC Global conference in Amsterdam. Last year in Europe, officials said, 1,152 flight trials took place in five locations, involving 18 industry partners. Trials were conducted in the surface, terminal and oceanic domains, demonstrating CO2 reductions of 190 to 1,200 kg (surface), up to 1250 kg (terminal) and 250 to 1050 kg (oceanic).

The trials practiced operational procedures including minimum power taxiing, rolling takeoffs, optimized flight paths and continuous descent approaches. Philippe Eydaleine, Air France representative to the European Union, said the results indicate that airlines could save 30 million euros annually using present capabilities.

Europe’s Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program Joint Undertaking has issued a call for tenders for additional industry partners to extend the program. Thien Ngo, AIRE program manager with FAA, said demonstrations in the next year will focus on east-bound flights, gate-to-gate operations and the involvement of air navigation service providers, airports and city pairs.

“The AIRE initiative has come at a very timely moment,” said Daniel Calleja, director of the European Commission’s Air Transport directorate. “It is a testbed for fuel-saving procedures, to measure their effectiveness, and standard equipment is used so no major investments are needed. But the experience will pave the way for the innovation coming with SESAR.”

Bill Carey, editor-in-chief of Avionics magazine, has 25 years of experience as a business, technology and aviation journalist with daily newspapers, newsletters and magazines. He previously served as managing editor of Avionics magazine and as European Bureau Chief for Avionics and Rotor & Wing in London from 1993 to 1995.

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