China's - Orient Aviation

ENVIRONMENTBy Tom BallantyneAir New Zealand (AirNZ)has f ir med up plans toconduct a serious test nextyear using environmentallyfriendly bio-jet fuel in oneof its Boeing B747-400s. It has signeda Memorandum of Understanding withBoeing and Rolls-Royce to conduct at leastone demonstration flight in the second halfof 2008.And in Sydney, trans-Tasman neighbour,Qantas Airways, has launched a carbonoffset programme, joining several other biginternational operators, including CathayPacific Airways, as the industry continuesto contribute to “greener” skies.Qantas went further. When it announcedthe scheme it organized a “Fly CarbonNeutral Day” – held on September 19 –when it paid to offset the equivalent ofaround 40,000 tonnes of greenhouse gassesassociated with some 950 flights it operatedon that day.The money is being used to plant andmaintain around 90,000 eucalyptus treesacross Australia.The New Zealand carrier’s bio-jet fueltest was foreshadowed by Orient Aviationin September when it reported Air NZ waslooking at a bio-fuel made from algae,By Tom BallantyneAs the 36th Assembly of theInternational Civil AviationOrganization (ICAO) drewto a close in September,hundreds of government andairline delegates from around the world weresure about one thing: a storm is brewing overEuropean plans to unilaterally introduce anaviation emissions trading scheme in 2012.What’s more it will lead to multi-milliondollar legal action.At the assembly the 27-nation EuropeanUnion (EU) refused to back away fromits emissions scheme, which will seeinternational carriers having to pay forgreenhouse gases they emit on all flightsto Europe.That, said Andrew Herdman, directorgeneral of the Association of Asia PacificAirlines (AAPA), was “not constructive” andhe called for more international cooperationon the issue.He was not alone. International AirAir New Zealand signs MoU with Boeing, Rolls-RoyceBio-jet fuel tests toQantas aiming to save two million tonnes by 2011 with its newproduced by local company, AquaflowBionomic Corporation.Air NZ chief executive, Rob Fyfe, saidthe test flight “ is another step in our plan tolead the globe in development of the mostenvironmentally responsible airline”.Boeing is in discussions with fuel sourceproviders around the world to identifypotential bio-fuels, which are available insuitable quantities for laboratory and jetengine performance testing and are compliantwith stringent aviation requirements.“Our near-term goal in this pioneeringeffort is to identify sustainable alternativebio-jet fuel sources for the planes that areflying today,” said Craig Saddler, president ofBoeing Australia and South Pacific region.“A significant first step is identifyingprogressive fuel sources that will providebetter economic and environmentalperformance for air carriers, without anychange to aircraft engines or the aviationfuel infrastructure.”It is hoped the Air NZ bio-jet fueldemonstration flight will highlight thesuitability of environmentally progressiveEurope refuses to budgeTr a n s p o r t A s s o c i a t i o n(IATA) director general,Giovanni Bisignani, describedit as “d isappoi nt i ng a ndirresponsible”. It was “contraryto the will of every other countryin the world and contrary tointernational law”, declaredJames C. May, president andthis lying down. In Montreal,EU transport commissioner,Jacques Barrot, said whileICAO has done much for airtransport safety “its record onaircraft emissions is simply notgood enough ... we must makemore and quicker progress totackle the urgent problem ofchief executive of the Air ‘Unilateral action climate change”.Transport Association (ATA),which represents 90% of U.S.airlines.And if that wasn’t enough,ICAO itself passed a resolutionopposing the EU plan, a movethat effectively amounted to acensure against a significantbloc of its own members.by the EU wouldinevitably leadto protractedinternationaldisputes’Andrew HerdmanDirector GeneralAAPAThen, in a statement issuedby the EU at the end of theAssembly, Luis Fonseca deAlmeida, head of Portugal’scivil aviation authority, said:“We strongly believe it wouldbe best if the internationalcommunity could reach aneffective mechanism on tacklingThe Europeans were taking none of aviation emissions.” He accused ICAO of32 ORIENT AVIATION NOVEMBER 2007