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News Releases
No. 71/07
June 18, 2007
EU COMMISSION AND FAA LAUNCH TRANSATLANTIC ACTION PLAN TO CUT EMISSIONS
 Jacques Barrot, European Commission Vice President
responsible for
transport, and Marion Blakey,
Administrator of the United States Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), today launched - in the presence of
aircraft industry representatives - a transatlantic
emission-reduction initiative called
AIRE.
"The future of the
aviation industry depends on its
ability to combat
climate change through innovation and
greater efficiency, and this initiative will enable us
to speed up the application of technologies and
procedures having a direct impact on greenhouse gas
emissions," Jacques Barrot said.
"Following the major success of our
open skies
agreement, this is further proof that the European Union
and the
United States benefit from working together in
the aviation sector. We both want a sky open to aircraft
but not to emissions," he added.
"The Commission is ensuring constant environmental
awareness in the aviation sector. Our AIRE initiative is
only one part of our three measures to make aviation
greener. It supplements our
proposal to include aviation
in the emission rights trading system and the
Clean Sky
initiative launched by the Commission last week to
support the development of the next generation of clean
aircraft," the Commission Vice President concluded.
The joint initiative AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability
Initiative to Reduce Emissions) fits in with the
cooperation protocol signed by the Commission and the
FAA to coordinate two major programs on air traffic
control infrastructure modernization,
SESAR in Europe
and NEXTGEN in the United States.
AIRE will make it possible to speed up the application
of new technologies and operational procedures, which
will have a direct impact in the short- and medium-term
on greenhouse gas emissions. The measures include
"smooth" or "reduced engine" approaches (which will
enable noise and exhaust gas emissions to be reduced
during landing), experiments with which carried out at
Stockholm, Louisville and Atlanta have shown substantial
savings in fuel and CO2 and NOx emissions.
AIRE will be based on "gate to gate" test campaigns and
experiments, which will make it possible to assess the
new measures' environmental benefits and their
operational and technical feasibility. Accordingly, the
Commission and the FAA have ensured that this initiative
is being undertaken with the close involvement of
partners from the industry, such as the
aircraft
manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, the operators Air
France-KLM, SAS, Delta and FEDEX, and providers of
aviation navigation services such as IAA (Ireland), LFV
(Sweden) and NAV (Portugal). In addition to being an
agreement between two leading public institutions, AIRE
is therefore a genuine partnership, which brings together
aviation players with the common aim of environmental
conservation.
The initial partnership will be expanded as best
practices and new technologies spread in Europe and the
United States.
For the Commission, the air transport sustainable
development strategy is based on a consistent
three-pillared approach:
-
Air traffic management, by means of SESAR or more
generally the
Single European Sky and initiatives such
as AIRE;
-
Technological development, through programs such as
Clean Sky or studies on the use of biofuels;
-
Economic mechanisms for trading emission rights.
AIRE is the first large-scale environmental initiative
bringing together aviation players from both sides of
the Atlantic.
Further Contact Information
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
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