Norwegian, the Scandinavia & UK based low-cost airline, is intruding technology to its flights that will save up to 5,000 tons of fuel over a year.
The new weather service called Aventus Air™ has already been trialled by the airline and saw fuel consumption reduced by 22 kilos per flight according to a report by the Swedish Energy Agency.
Built by AVTECH Sweden AB, Aventus Air™ provides highly accurate wind and temperature information, This data is transferred to the aircraft’s flight management systems enabling an optimised flight plan which improves efficiency and reduces the CO2 footprint of the flight, over a year that would be around 16,000 tons less.
Whilst the product is aimed at reducing emissions and helping the environment, rising fuel prices mean that the airline industry will welcome any opportunity to reduce fuel costs. A reduction of 5000 tonnes per year would represent a significant reduction in costs for Norwegian.
Tomas Hesthammer, Norwegian’s Director of Flight Operations said: “We work actively to reduce emissions. We have one of the youngest and most environmentally friendly fleets in the world, which has enabled us to reduce emissions by more than 30 percent since 2008. Our ambition is to continue to reduce emissions per passenger with fuel-efficient aircraft and with innovative technology. The AVTECH project demonstrates that fuel consumption can be further reduced by using advanced weather data. We are looking forward to establishing a permanent partnership that benefits both the environment and Norwegian’s costs”
The project has been partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. They analysed data from a total of 29,000 flights completed in November and December 2017 and the results showed a reduction of 640 tons of fuel on Norwegian’s flights during this period. That equates to an annual CO2 reduction of 16,000 tons, or an annual reduction of 5,000 tons of fuel on Norwegian’s flights.
