How modern aircraft navigation technology can provide respite from noise for those living under airport flight paths.

Recent changes to how we use UK airspace have enabled our airline customers to save an extra 8,000 tonnes of fuel every year. This means 13,000 tonnes of fuel savings have been enabled since April, worth £8.5m to airlines and the equivalent to 41,000 tonnes of CO2.

Last week I took part in a panel discussion on the use of technology in aviation to drive sustainability at Air Transport World’s Eco-Aviation Conference in Washington DC.

It was striking that at a conference wholly about the environment and aviation, NATS was the only ANSP represented, yet the topic of air traffic management (ATM) was seemingly on everyone’s lips.

NATS had been working with Heathrow, BA and community group HACAN on a noise respite trial for people living under the airport flight paths. Today, the results have been published and they make for interesting reading.

We’re very aware of the impact aircraft noise has on those who live under flight paths. That’s why we work with airports and airlines to help them minimise the effect and provide respite in the vicinity of the airport.

Perhaps sustainability doesn’t immediately spring to mind when you think about aviation, but at NATS we are well aware that the environment and local communities are central to our business and core to our success.

We’ve developed a new monitoring tool to help our operational and environmental managers better understand flight profiles around our airports.

On January 1st 2012 we delivered another world first by measuring the environmental performance of our airspace in an entirely new way.