US airlines cut carbon despite soaring passenger numbers

Aviation may have become something of a bete noire to many within the environmental movement, but according to new figures from the industry it has made significant progress in recent years towards limiting its carbon footprint.

The US Air Transport Association (ATA) yesterday published its annual economic report detailing how improvements in fuel efficiency meant that fuel use by US airlines fell almost three per cent between 2000 and 2007, leading to a reduction in annual carbon emissions of 11.2bn pounds, despite passenger and cargo traffic increasing 20.4 per cent over the same period.

The report also claimed that the fuel efficiency of US airlines has increased by 110 per cent since 1978 as improvements to engine design, air traffic control, and aircraft aerodynamics and weight have all taken effect.

Writing in the report, ATA president and chief executive James C May said that the association was committed to improving fuel efficiency by a further 30 per cent by 2025, but warned that continued investment in new technology and air traffic management systems were crucial to the target being achieved.

Quentin Browell at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that the progress being demonstrated by the US aviation sector was being mirrored globally and was set to be sustained over the next few decades.

"Globally we have seen a 70 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency over the past 40 years and if we look at the fuel efficiency of new aircraft coming on stream and the expected infrastructure improvements that should be achieved, we'd expect to see another 25 per cent improvement between 2005 and 2020," he said. "That is not a vague target, but an actual projection of what we expect to be achieved."

He added that while average fuel consumption across the current fleet of aircraft stands at four litres per 100 passenger kilometres, new aircraft deliver an average of 3.5 litres and the next-generation A380 and B787 aircraft are targeting fuel consumption of less than three litres per 100 passenger kilometres.