[November 5, 2020] [No. 083] In This Issue : ProSafeT - SMS, Quality & Audit Management Software : FIVE TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL SHAPE THE AVIATION INDUSTRY RECOVERY : ACI Global Traveler Survey Reveals Half Want to Travel Again Soon : Diamond Green Diesel plant to double renewable fuel capacity : Greening the Friendly Skies : IndiGo in talks for big engine order, defying aviation gloom : Munich Airport Remains the Only Five-star Airport in Europe : Covid-19 Has Elevated Aviation Safety to New Heights, Says Industry Leader : ATP Launches Seamless Integration Between Flightdocs and Aviation Hub : Resolution would clear the way for improvements at American Airlines' maintenance facilities : NASA, SpaceX delay launch of Sentinel-6 ocean-mapping satellite to Nov. 21 FIVE TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL SHAPE THE AVIATION INDUSTRY RECOVERY Automation, enabled by biometrics and contactless technologies, will be more important than ever in this COVID-19 era. There is growing interest from the market to automate and optimize airport operations, through the use of smart technology, to deliver process and cost efficiencies. Automation enables better social distancing and passenger flow through airports, without compromising processing times. 1. Biometrics and Contactless Technologies In Beijing, SITA has implemented Smart Path technology; including the use of facial biometrics to deliver a ‘walk-through’ airport experience, passengers can simply use their face as their boarding pass. Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) has completely automated the entire outbound passenger journey; from check-in and bag drop through to immigration, security and finally boarding. Passengers only need to enrol once during check-in, they can then experience a seamless journey through the airport; removing the need to show a passport or boarding pass. Improved processing efficiency means shorter queuing time and more social distancing for all passengers. An added benefit during the COVID-19 era is that the process removes the need to touch any airport equipment, reducing the risk of infection. 2. Minding the Distance - Evolving Airport Operations in Response to COVID-19 The COVID-19 outbreak is rapidly changing the processes and flows of airport operations. In addition to weathering the economic storm, caused by the pandemic, the main goals of airport stakeholders are to adapt to changing regulations, designed to protect the health and welfare of staff and travellers. Flexibility and agility are the standard qualities required of any operating system to help airports manage. Passenger flow management technologies such as SITA’s and AMS's (Airport Management Solution) provide real-time passenger monitoring and actionable insights, for airports to know and manage passenger movement throughout the airport. It will become a necessity to pro-actively manage crowd density and social distancing during daily operations, as well as longer-term planning. Utilizing technology, like SITA's Information Display System, airports can send passengers personalized mobile messages such as “your gate was thoroughly disinfected 11 minutes ago” “your row is now boarding at gate 5” This added level of communication can place passengers at ease throughout their entire airport journey. 3. Development of a Self-Sovereign Identity for Air Travel In the coming years we expect that the development of a, universally accepted, self-sovereign digital identity will replace the traditional passport, further reducing contact points and ensuring seamless travel. This digital identity will allow travel across borders with any airline or airport, all the while ensuring that passengers remain in full control of their identities. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) gives travellers control over how their personal data is shared and used. It adds a layer of security and flexibility, allowing the identity holder only to reveal the data required for any given transaction or interaction. The potential benefits of using SSIs include: lower financial transaction costs, protecting people’s personal information, limiting opportunity for cybercrime and simplifying identity challenges in various fields, including travel, healthcare, banking, IoT and voter fraud. 4. Health ETA and APP – The key to Accelerating Travel During COVID-19 and Beyond Health Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) allows governments to receive the information they need to help keep their country healthy. Travellers are required to provide information on their health status and are informed of that assessment’s outcome in advance of travel, this will give travellers confidence that they will be allowed to complete their journey before it begins. When they are at their destination travellers can then focus on their trip, knowing that they can be contacted in case of any potential outbreaks or concerns. For example, Advance Passenger Processing (APP) brings the ability to assess the risk, including health risks, and allow or deny travel at the point of check-in. When coupled with the implementation of a Health ETA service, it enables real-time checks to be performed to confirm that each traveller has completed the required health checks and is eligible to travel. For travellers, it provides greater safety and surety of travel and a smoother border processing experience. 5. The Potential of Blockchain for Aviation Industry-Wide Savings Blockchain is a technology that promises tremendous opportunity for streamlining the sharing and recording of information, across the air transport industry securely. These improvements through blockchain technology have the potential to deliver substantial industry savings. Process improvements ultimately can improve and with them so will the customer experience. For instance, the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Blockchain Alliance was launched in early 2020; designed to explore blockchain’s use to digitally track and record aircraft parts and securely share common data, to drive new efficiencies in air travel. PwC estimates that the use of blockchain could increase aerospace industry revenue by as much as 4% or $40 billion, while cutting MRO costs globally by around 5% or $3.5 billion. Savings will be derived from secure document storage, ensuring confidentiality and data privacy, improved insights on repair time and inventory, automated workflows and more efficient record reconciliation. Custom processes are another area where blockchain can benefit. Airports, airlines and governments can share baggage content information to pre-clear bags at arrival, hence avoiding the need to recheck bags in transit. Improving efficiency in this department, and further reducing the chances of baggage mishandling on arrival, is good news for passengers. https://samchui.com/2020/11/04/five-technologies-that-will-shape-the-aviation-industry-recovery/#.X6Q0jajYrrc ACI Global Traveler Survey Reveals Half Want to Travel Again Soon Airports Council International (ACI) World, on Nov. 4, published its ASQ Global Traveller Survey which reveals half of those surveyed want to travel again soon which can be attributed to a strong level of confidence in the environment safety provided by airports and airlines. The survey found that 48% of travelers considered themselves likely to travel within the next three months but, despite this eagerness to travel, the recovery is dependent on a multitude of factors. Passengers expect that new measures are put in place to address health risks, including mandatory masks for passengers and staff, COVID-19 testing prior to the trip, hand sanitizing stations, and the development of a more contactless airport experience. In the long run, the survey found an overall slight decrease in travel frequency is expected and a shift in the main reason to travel with slightly less business travelers, and more people traveling for personal reasons. This will have an impact on the proportion of traffic type with domestic traffic helping recovery in the short term. Completion of the report was supported by KONE Corporation, Munich Airport International, Plaza Premium Group, and POTLOC. “One of the keys to recovery will be the aviation industry’s understanding of the changing needs of passengers and ACI’s new survey provides insight into how COVID-19 is affecting passenger expectations and future travel plans,” ACI World Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira said. “It is reassuring that travellers are eager to travel again and our survey will help airports make the right decisions in providing the best and safest customer experience. Airports, airlines and their partners need to continue to increase the level of confidence in the entire passenger journey and provide and communicate the measures they are introducing to keep passenger healthy and safe. ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation programme provides airports with not only a tool to assess their health measures against globally-recognized standards but also a way to communicate to passengers about these measures.” Sascha Brozek, senior vice president, major projects, KONE Corporation said, “As air travel and the industry navigates changes in order to gradually return, there’s no doubt the way passengers move through airports has been changed permanently. In this respect, safe and efficient people flow management is vital. At KONE, we believe that technology and smart solutions will help us reconfigure environments like airport terminals, keeping safety and health as a top priority.” Ralf Gaffal, managing director at Munich Airport International said, “Covid-19 has a never-seen impact on our aviation industry – not only did it cause traffic movements to hit rock bottom, it also changed the overall behaviour and expectations of our passengers and requires the implementation of new processes and systems. As a global world-class airport operator, it is essential for us to understand all changes and requirements to quickly adapt processes, facilities and information flow. The results of this ASQ Global Traveller Survey will provide guidance to define our strategy and actions in order to maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction.” Bora Isbulan, chief commercial officer of Plaza Premium Group said, “It is a pleasure for us to support ACI World, global trade representative of world airports on their global passenger survey. It is important for the airport community to work together for the revival of travel, especially during these unprecedented times. As a leader in airport hospitality, it is fundamental for us to understand the behaviour of global passengers and how it will continue to evolve through the importance of wellbeing, digital advancements and loyalty programmes in the new age of travel.” Rodolphe Barrere co-founder and CEO at POTLOC said, "COVID-19 has forced the travel industry to completely rethink the status quo and the way it operates. Airports that have answers from consumers will have more chances of overcoming a post-COVID world. With this study, at Potloc we wanted to help them understand consumer perceptions facing this new reality. We were able to reach far and wide, by extracting travellers’ insights via social networks, to get a clearer picture of where we stand now, and what the future holds for airports in their eyes.” The ASQ Global Traveller Survey has been created to help airports plan for future demand - in the short, medium and long term - and to adapt customer experience accordingly. This will help them implement the right measures expected by travelers, improve the most stressful touchpoints throughout the journey, and understand passengers’ needs and expectations “We are grateful to our sponsors in supporting this important project which will help inform airports and promote public confidence in the recovery of air travel,” Luis Felipe de Oliveira. https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/press-release/21161329/airports-council-international-aciworld-aci-global-traveler-survey-reveals-half-want-to-travel-again-soon Diamond Green Diesel plant to double renewable fuel capacity Honeywell UOP has revealed that the Diamond Green Diesel facility will more than double its annual production of renewable diesel. The company said that the facility in Norco, Louisiana, will see the completion of a second Ecofining process unit with a capacity of 30,000 barrels per day (bpd). Diamond Green Diesel is owned by Valero Energy Corp and Darling Ingredients Inc, and is the largest commercial advanced biofuel facility in the US. The facility converts inedible oils and other waste fats into a high-quality renewable diesel fuel. When the second unit is completed in 2021, the Diamond Green Diesel facility will have capacity to produce 675 million gallons of renewable diesel fuel per year. The Diamond Green Diesel facility converts waste feedstocks into Honeywell Green Diesel - a high-quality fuel that is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel. It can be used as a drop-in replacement in diesel-powered vehicles with no engine modifications. Diamond Green Diesel established its first Ecofining unit at its Norco facility in 2013 with a capacity of 10,000 bpd. In 2017, it announced an expansion of that capacity to 18,000 bpd. Ecofining technology is used in two commercial scale production facilities in the US and two in Europe. Diesel fuel produced by the Ecofining process has a cetane value of 80, compared with a cetane range of 40 to 60 found in diesel at the pump today. Ecofining technology can also produce renewable jet fuel that can be blended with petroleum-based jet fuel. When used in up to a 50% blend with petroleum-based jet fuel, Honeywell Green Jet Fuel requires no changes to aircraft technology and meets all critical specifications for flight. https://biofuels-news.com/news/diamond-green-diesel-plant-to-double-renewable-fuel-capacity/ Greening the Friendly Skies Decarbonizing the aviation industry won’t be easy. The coronavirus pandemic complicates the situation but also presents an opportunity. The fight over Heathrow Airport’s third runway has been going on for decades. On the proposed site in a cluster of villages outside of London, residents fought the demolition of 750 properties and the addition of a lot more aircraft noise. Climate activists—some of whom went so far as to occupy one of the existing runways—opposed the additional air traffic the new runway would bring to what is already the busiest airport in Europe and all of the carbon emissions that would come with it. By some counts, the new runway at Heathrow would increase emissions associated with the airport by 60%. Construction was set to begin next year, with the runway becoming operational by 2026. Then, in February, a judge in the United Kingdom’s appeals court halted progress on the new runway on the unprecedented grounds that the project failed to take into account Britain’s obligations under the Paris Agreement, signed by the United Kingdom in 2016. (The United States, originally a party to the agreement, is set to withdraw from it today, 4 November.) Climate activists reveled in the win, but the decision hardly paves a way forward. The world’s goals for reducing aircraft emissions are still fuzzy, and strategies vary by country and region. Even keeping track of emissions, and deciding who is responsible for them, poses significant challenges. And all of that was before the coronavirus pandemic plunged the aviation industry into a historic crisis. Global flight frequency dipped by as much as 70% by May and remains well below 2019 levels. Aircraft emissions have fallen proportionally, but the hiatus won’t last. When the pandemic ends, airlines, airports, and policymakers will find themselves at a crossroads. Aviation accounts for 2.4% of the world’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and demand for flights is projected to double within the next 2 decades. If the industry’s current decarbonization goals aren’t met, aviation could contribute up to one quarter of the world’s entire carbon budget by 2050. Experts agree that decarbonizing aviation will require investment—and bold leaps forward—in technology. It will also require unified action on the part of the world’s governments to guide market behavior. Even with those developments, aviation likely will be one of the last sectors to go green. Carbon and Noncarbon Emissions The first challenge is in measuring how much the aviation industry contributes to climate change. Burning jet fuel produces the same general cocktail of pollutants that burning other fossil fuels does, but aircraft have the added impact of injecting the pollutants directly into the upper troposphere, where they do more damage. High-flying aircraft also form contrails, the streaks of frozen water vapor that often mark their paths across the sky. Both aerosols and soot produced by the incomplete burning of jet fuel provide surfaces on which water vapor can condense and freeze, creating a translucent barrier that traps heat the same way greenhouse gases do. Contrails in turn can become whole banks of cirrus clouds that further warm the atmosphere. Contrails are short-lived in comparison with CO2, which can remain in the atmosphere for centuries. The clouds may last for only a few minutes or hours, but given that new ones are constantly appearing, their net effect on radiative forcing is believed to be roughly as large as that of carbon emissions. But exactly how contrails affect warming is still poorly understood. Further complicating things, burning jet fuel produces non-CO2 chemicals that contribute to both warming and cooling in the atmosphere. The most significant are the nitrogen oxides (nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)), key ingredients in the formation of ozone, a greenhouse gas that can linger in the upper troposphere for a month or two. Nitrogen oxides produce more ozone at a jet’s cruising altitude than at ground level, which causes more warming. But they also have a cooling effect by helping to destroy methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas. “The state of the science is too uncertain to really try and pin down all these short-lived effects of aviation,” said Piers Forster, a professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, “and it’s also quite difficult to compare the short-lived effects of aviation to the long-lived effects of carbon dioxide.” The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that has recently taken the lead in curbing global aviation emissions, doesn’t yet take noncarbon emissions into account. Forster thinks it should. “[Non-CO2 aircraft emissions] do have an influence on increasing the surface temperature,” he said. He and his colleagues recently found that aviation emissions have a warming effect 3 times larger than that of the carbon component alone, with contrails and contrail cirrus clouds being the greatest contributors. “We ought to begin to think about ways of intelligently taking those effects into account.” Who Owns Aircraft Emissions? Measuring the impact of emissions is one challenge; deciding who is responsible for them is another. After the Paris Agreement was signed, ICAO was tasked with curbing emissions from international flights, which emit roughly 65% of the sector’s carbon. The agreement leaves it up to signatory countries on how to reduce their total emissions, including emissions from domestic flights. Some countries lump any portion of international flights that occur within their borders in with their domestic flights, even though the former is included under their commitment to ICAO. “Sometimes there’s double counting. It is not always clear what types of flights are included in the national aviation emissions,” said Jasenka Rakas, deputy director of University of California, Berkeley’s National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR), a multiuniversity aviation research center. Individual airports are often owned and operated by local governments and have little power to curb emissions beyond their ground operations. Heathrow, which is privately owned by an international consortium, is one of a few companies and the first airport to receive accreditation from the Carbon Trust for greening its supply chain. But those efforts don’t touch the bulk of emissions at Heathrow. According to Rakas’s current research, about 60% of the emissions associated with busy airports come from the landing and takeoff cycles of aircraft, including taxiing. Air traffic controllers can reduce delays that cause more fuel burn, Rakas said, but curbing overall emissions is mostly left up to airlines. “Airports don’t control those emissions directly because they don’t own those emissions.” That’s partly because CO2 emissions are not like noise or smog. “The authority to introduce regulations at the local airport is restricted to [regulating] local pollutions that have local effects,” said Anna Elofsson, a doctoral student at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden who specializes in climate policy for aviation. “The climate problem is not a local problem.” In terms of jurisdiction and range of regulatory tools, most of the muscle for controlling aircraft emissions is at the national level—if governments know where to apply it. Can Technology Decarbonize Aviation? Airlines and aircraft manufacturers are already strongly incentivized to improve the efficiency of jet engines, as burning less fuel saves money (the industry currently gets about 2% more fuel efficient every year). Regulations requiring airlines to carry more passengers and freight per flight, to find more direct routes to destinations, or to swap old, fuel-guzzling aircraft for more efficient ones might squeeze out another half percent per year, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Some climate researchers also suggest changing flight patterns and schedules to mitigate contrailing. Jets produce more contrails at higher altitudes and latitudes, and flight paths could be adjusted to avoid those conditions. Contrails also contribute to warming only at night—during the day, they reflect more energy than they absorb—so fewer nighttime flights would help. Forster suggests that real-time weather data, coupled with a powerful enough algorithm, could plot flight paths that would minimize contrails while also minimizing fuel burn, and therefore CO2 emissions. “From good weather forecasting and good technology, you ought to be able to have a look in real time if your aircraft is contrailing,” he said. The carbon impact of producing fuel can also be improved, but converting to sustainable jet fuel won’t be easy. “Airplanes are very, very picky about what kinds of fuels they can take,” said Stephanie Searle, who leads the fuels program at ICCT. To power long-distance flights, jet fuel needs to be lightweight but energy dense. The most immediately available option is carbon-neutral biofuels, in this case, liquid jet fuel made from energy crops or waste products rather than from fossil fuels. The technology to produce them is well established, and they can be used in existing aircraft without modifications. But, said Searle, “biofuels are sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing.” Food-based biofuels end up displacing actual food production enough to push farmers to clear more carbon-sequestering forests and grasslands to meet food demand. Because they often result in the clearing of high-carbon-stock tropical forest, palm and soy-based biofuels actually create more carbon emissions than fossil jet fuels do. Biofuel production currently meets less than 0.1% of global jet fuel demand, partly because providing it to other sectors is cheaper. But there may simply never be enough of it. Searle estimates that using every grassland on Earth to grow energy crops would still meet only 8% of the world’s projected energy requirements in 2050. It’s also possible to synthesize jet fuel, in a process called “power-to-liquids,” by electrolyzing hydrogen and CO2. As long as the electricity used is from renewable sources and the carbon is captured from existing emissions—say, from flue gas streams at a coal-fired power plant—the process can be carbon neutral, taking as much CO2 out of the atmosphere in production as is emitted when the fuel burns. But it’s a very inefficient process, said Searle. “If you’re lucky, you could end up with about half of the energy in your power-to-liquids that you started with in terms of electricity.” Both carbon capture and renewable electricity are still prohibitively expensive, and Searle said they’re likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. No one is producing electrofuel at the commercial scale yet, but Searle estimates it would cost almost $600 per barrel to make, compared with around $90 for a barrel of fossil jet fuel (and that’s before COVID-19 drove the price down to around $40). There are other technologies on the horizon. Hydrogen fuels—either for combustion in a jet engine or for use in generating electricity in a fuel cell—offer a lightweight option that emits water vapor instead of CO2. The technology is still in its infancy, however, and is limited by the same high-cost processes as fuel synthesis is. Hydrogen combustion engines would emit nitrogen oxides, leading again to more ozone production at altitude, and Forster points out that water vapor emissions may actually worsen the contrail problem. “We really are in the phase now when we have to look for completely brand-new technology, like electric aircraft,” Forster said. But the technology to replace more than a sliver of commercial aviation with electric aircraft is mostly theoretical. The main consideration is weight—by one estimate, an electric 747 airliner would require 10 times its weight in today’s best batteries. That said, roughly one third of air passenger carbon emissions come from flights of 1,500 kilometers or shorter, and many of them are in small aircraft that could conceivably be fitted with electric or hybrid engines using existing technology. The Canadian airline Harbour Air Seaplanes, operator of the largest seaplane fleet in North America, has committed to replacing all of its aircraft engines with battery-powered ones. Dan Rutherford, program director for marine and aviation at ICCT, said electric aircraft could replace only a fraction of aviation’s global fuel use, and that’s unlikely to happen for decades. “We’re a long way off,” he said. Meanwhile, aviation emissions aren’t even going in the right direction. “The evidence suggests that it’s very, very hard to absolutely reduce emissions when you have traffic growing 5% or 6% per year,” he said. Air Traffic Control Ultimately, the world likely won’t be able to meet its climate goals under the Paris Agreement without limiting the number of flights we take. It’s possible to do that physically by not expanding airport capacity. But without regional moratoriums, Rutherford said, individual airports like Heathrow would risk simply driving traffic elsewhere if they chose not to add new runways. Barring a technological miracle, the most effective way to reduce the climate impacts of aviation emissions may be to disincentivize flying. Forster notes that it’s the only way to reduce all of those impacts in the immediate term. “You actually get 2 times the benefit,” he said, “because by changing behavior, you get rid of the contrails and you get rid of the CO2.” Governments can change behavior—of airlines and of passengers—by putting a price on carbon. One way to do that is to set up cap-and-trade markets, which place a limit on how much CO2 a company can emit without facing hefty fines. The market allows those who emit less to sell their unused carbon credits—each representing 1 metric ton of carbon emissions—to those who emit more. The cap is then gradually reduced, causing an overall reduction in emissions. The problem is that when cap-and-trade markets are open to many different sectors, carbon is drained out of sectors that are the least expensive to green. In Europe’s Emissions Trading System, for example, the power sector sells credits for around €25–€30. To earn a credit through flight emissions reductions, an airline would need to invest more than 13 times that amount in biofuel. “All of the airlines that talk about biofuels, they’re not going to use biofuels, they’re going to buy the cheapest offsets,” said Rutherford. “[Cap-and-trade’s] track record is really using aviation to decarbonize the power sector.” Meanwhile, as other sectors decarbonize, Forster and his colleagues estimate that aviation likely will contribute an increasingly larger proportion of the world’s anthropogenic radiative forcing. A much more direct way to limit air traffic is simply to tax carbon emissions, a step many experts believe will be necessary to drive the level of change aviation needs. “The cost will be higher for fuel, and then you will push the efficiency improvements,” said Elofsson. “And also, the price of the tickets will be higher, and then the alternatives, like trains and closer destinations and so on, will also be more attractive in comparison.” The tax would have to be globally or at least regionally consistent to prevent airlines from refueling only in tax-free countries. It would also be fair, Eloffson said, because only those who take flights, or who profit from them, would bear the cost. “Of course, with the CO2 tax or a fuel tax, it will be like it is right now, that the people with more money can fly more.” Rutherford noted that two thirds of the flights in most countries are taken by between 12% and 15% of the population. “There’s this really interesting equity problem embedded in aviation emissions,” he said. “Only the globally rich fly.” That’s particularly relevant given the demographics of the projected uptick in demand for air travel. The majority of new flights will originate in Asia, where the travel boom is partly the result of millions of people emerging from poverty into a burgeoning middle class. But the majority of emissions are coming from passengers who can afford to fly often, and there are more of them in rich countries. Rutherford recommends a simple solution to that imbalance: a global frequent flyer levy. It’s essentially a progressive carbon tax, one that would charge passengers more the more they fly, while allowing occasional flights to remain affordable. According to Elofsson, regulators are weighing the social benefits of increased access to aviation as well as its negative impacts on the environment. “It makes the world closer,” she said. “What kind of value is that for democracy, understanding, cultural development?” The Silver Lining of Staying Home Aviation is also arguably what got us into the mess of a global pandemic in the first place, scattering infected travelers from Wuhan, China, to the four winds in a matter of weeks. Realizing our mistake, we stopped flying, in turn creating one of the many strains the pandemic has put on the global economy. But the sudden scarcity of aircraft in the skies provides a windfall for atmospheric scientists: a massive, free experiment in high-altitude contrail cirrus formation. Until now, the phenomenon has been described only by computer models; the pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to observe it directly. “We can compare the clouds in 2019, when we did have aviation, with the clouds today, when we do not,” said Forster. Similar work was done during the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010, which shut down air travel in Europe, and in the days after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. However, “[those events] weren’t global, and they were only for a short time,” said Forster. “What we have this time is that we can begin to put together far better statistics because the change has been far more pronounced. We can hopefully be more conclusive this time.” Researchers are currently poring over satellite imagery and launching instrument flights to observe the changes in cloud cover in areas with normally high air traffic, but it won’t be simple to interpret the results. “Clouds are so variable from one day to the next. You have to worry about the effects of local meteorology,” said Forster. “So you have to try and correct for all these confounding different ideas.” Forster noted that it could also be possible to compare current surface temperature fluctuations from day to night with the same fluctuations last year, to observe whether nighttime contrail cirrus has a measurable effect. As for regulation, the dip in traffic complicates fledgling efforts to set an emissions baseline for aviation or to predict where emissions are headed, said Eloffson. But because the aviation industry now needs government bailouts to recover from the pandemic, there is an opportunity to rebuild it greener than it was before. “It’s not only the aviation sector; it’s all sectors. What kind of companies and businesses do we want to recover, and what is kind of belonging to the past? And what technologies are they wanting to support with all this money?” Eloffson asked. “That will also be very important—how brave the political leaders are right now.” The question may be less one of bravery than one of priorities. “We’ve just seen governments move so fast on the bailouts, primarily with the desire to maintain employment as the major motivator, that environmental conditions largely haven’t gotten in,” said Rutherford. At least in the near term, one thing that can change relatively easily is consumer choice. Consumers can simply choose to shrink their flying-related carbon footprints. “We’re working right now to see that ‘emissions by itinerary’ starts to get integrated into travel search engines,” said Rutherford. The idea, called an emissions disclosure, would be much like nutritional labels on food, showing ticket buyers how much carbon each flight will emit. It may seem that flying is a monolithically bad thing to do, from a climate perspective, but passengers have a surprising amount of choice in the impact they have. Rutherford and his colleagues have found that economy flights between the same two cities can vary in their emissions outputs by as much as 85%. And Rutherford said that recent cultural stigma around flying has made a measurable difference. “We definitely saw domestic demand for aviation in northern Europe start to fall off purely as a function of the flight shame movement in 2019.” Seizing the Moment The upheaval of 2020 presents a new opportunity for individuals, and organizations, to rethink their relationship to air travel. A recent paper in Nature found that attendees at AGU’s 5-day Fall Meeting in 2019 added as much carbon to the atmosphere in getting there as the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, does in a week—about 80,000 metric tons. This year, the pandemic has forced the meeting online, but organizers are considering it a chance to explore ways to shrink the carbon footprint of global science. As for the locals and climate activists who have fought against Heathrow’s third runway, they’ve been granted a twofold reprieve, first by the court’s decision and then by the coronavirus. Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye recently told the British Parliament it may be another 15 years before the aviation industry can recover enough from the pandemic to warrant an additional runway. In the meantime, the villages adjacent to the airport have been given an unexpected gift: the occasional silence. https://eos.org/features/greening-the-friendly-skies IndiGo in talks for big engine order, defying aviation gloom IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, is in talks with Pratt & Whitney and CFM International Inc. for its next batch of jet engine orders, according to people familiar with the matter, a rare sign of dealmaking in a sector that’s been paralyzed by the virus pandemic. The discussions with the rival manufacturers relate to engines that would power about 150 new Airbus SE A320neo jets, the people said, asking not to be identified because the negotiations are private. Talks are preliminary and there’s no timeline on when any agreement may be reached, the people said. Based on the size of IndiGo’s last engine order—a $20 billion transaction with CFM that covered 280 planes and was the largest engine order in history—the new agreement could be worth around $10.7 billion, including service, repair, and maintenance. The pandemic presents a unique opportunity, however, for IndiGo to potentially bargain with the engine makers, both of which it now counts as suppliers. “This is the perfect time to engage given the overall market conditions and state of competitors—both of which will enable Indigo to get very lucrative deals,” said Satyendra Pandey, a partner at New Delhi-based advisory AT-TV and a former head of strategy for Go Airlines India. “As this selection is for the remaining aircraft, it involves the long-term performance and cost forecasts.” A representative for IndiGo declined to comment. Spokespeople for Pratt & Whitney and CFM didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., IndiGo is the world’s biggest customer for jets in the A320neo family, with as many as 730 on order. The airline has yet to decide the engine type for the 300 that would be outstanding. Cash Rich That any airline is negotiating over future aircraft and related parts is a surprise considering how thoroughly the global aviation industry has been demoralized by the pandemic. India had the world’s fastest-growing aviation market for several years before demand started to falter and Covid-19 shut borders and diminished international travel. IndiGo, while impacted by border closures and a dearth of international travel like other airlines, is relatively rich, with about $2.4 billion of cash and equivalents as of Sept. 30. Total debt as of that date was $3.5 billion. Although Pratt, which is owned by Raytheon Technologies Corp, has spent $10 billion to develop a new engine for narrowbody jets, it’s faced delivery delays and multiple issues leading to midair shutdowns. IndiGo decided last year to switch away from its engines, placing a $20 billion order instead with rival CFM, a venture between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA. Airlines around the world have deferred or canceled hundreds of plane orders as demand plummets. Any meaningful recovery is seen as years away and a viable vaccine remains elusive. That has forced both Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing Co. to cut production and thousands of jobs, putting pressure in turn on hundreds of suppliers. IndiGo plans to trim its fleet size over the next two years, taking new deliveries and returning older jets at an even faster clip, before starting to grow again by 2023, Chief Executive Officer Ronojoy Dutta told analysts during a post-earnings conference call last week. Unlike other carriers, IndiGo hasn’t engaged in any “major renegotiation” with Airbus on new deliveries, Dutta said. https://ajot.com/news/indigo-in-talks-for-big-engine-order-defying-aviation-gloom Munich Airport Remains the Only Five-star Airport in Europe In May 2015, Munich Airport was awarded five-star status for the first time following an extensive review by the London-based Skytrax Institute. Germany's second-largest airport was also the first European airport to be awarded this highest seal of quality. In a first re-certification, Munich Airport successfully maintained its five-star status in March 2017. Now the auditors from London have again subjected the Bavarian aviation hub to a detailed evaluation. The auditors' conclusion: Munich Airport has not only maintained its high quality of service and hospitality, but has even further extended it. In the course of the current audit, all of the airport's service facilities relevant to passengers were closely examined. Particular attention was paid to the new services that have been added in recent years, such as the new lounges in Terminal 1, the redesigned arrivals area in Terminal 2, the security checkpoint in Terminal 2 that has been upgraded with innovative technology, the user-friendly online booking platform for parking customers, and Munich Airport's new website, which was launched in 2017. The confirmation of the five-star status was also influenced by the extensive measures implemented at Munich Airport to protect against coronavirus infection in compliance with hygiene and cleaning regulations. For Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax, Munich Airport has set new standards in the European airport landscape with the renewed confirmation of its seal of approval, "Munich Airport has not rested on its awards, but with many attractive innovations has ensured that passengers have an even more pleasant stay at Munich Airport. It is easy to see at this airport that the cooperation between all the partners on campus works perfectly well." "This is a great and motivating signal in a difficult time," said Jost Lammers, CEO of Munich Airport. ”I consider it particularly remarkable that we were able to maintain our high standards despite the many restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The fact that we will remain a 5-star airport in the future strengthens our resolve to overcome the current crisis together as an airport community. Certainly there will be a time after the pandemic crisis and I am confident that our hub will then be able to build on the successes of previous years." Of the seven international airports that have been awarded the five-star airport seal of approval, Munich is still the only European airport and, together with Doha, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo Haneda, Munich Airport ranks in the world's top group of airports. https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/press-release/21161314/munich-airport-munich-airport-remains-the-only-fivestar-airport-in-europe Covid-19 Has Elevated Aviation Safety to New Heights, Says Industry Leader Aviation remains the safest way to travel – and, it’s safer today than it has ever been before, according to alumnus Pater Cerdá (’01), regional vice president in the Americas for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association for the world’s airlines, which also helps build industry policy. “Since March, only 40 cases out of 1.2 billion passengers have shown (Covid-19) transmission directly from a flight,” he said. “(Flying) is safer today than any time in our history. … The big challenge is getting airplanes into the air.” Cerdá brought welcome optimism to Embry-Riddle during a recent Aviation Outlook webinar – despite the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many countries have closed their borders, leading to a 90% decline in international traffic compared to the same time last year, he acknowledged. Quarantine requirements have kept many consumers from air travel altogether, opting instead for virtual business meetings, road trips and deferred vacations. So far in 2020, 40 airlines worldwide have ceased operations amid the downturn in traffic. Aviation industry leaders are stepping up to the new challenges, Cerdá noted. In addition to mask requirements, increased touchless check-in options and enhanced safety protocols at airports, Cerdá said, airlines have also come together to adopt stricter plane-cleaning measures across the industry, reduced in-flight food service and altered baggage practices. “It’s a totally different and radical change — but a change that was needed,” he said. “We will not be a vector of transmission for the virus.” In spite of those radical changes to the travel experience, Cerdá stressed that these “bio-safety” improvements mark only a first step. Next, the aviation industry will need to convince governments around the world that these measures have been effective, through data. After that, it will need to convince passengers — a task, he believes, is dependent on improved testing. “We see testing as an alternative to remove quarantine (requirements),” he said. “IATA is advocating to governments all around the world to ensure that testing is reliable, but also fast. It needs to be fast. It needs to be accurate. … It needs to be affordable … and it has to be scalable.” That sort of advanced testing technology would remove the threat of in-flight Covid-19 transmission almost entirely, Cerdá added — and just as important for carriers and consumers alike, it would remove the need for a passenger to quarantine after arriving at his or her destination. “Without a safety environment, without a safe industry, you have no industry,” he said. “But with the right confidence, people are going to want to travel.” Sponsored by the deans of Embry-Riddle’s College of Aviation, the free and interactive Aviation Outlook webinar series hosted Cerdá as its 11th guest. The ongoing series features leaders throughout the industry who offer insights on their careers, as well as on the future of aviation. That future, it’s important to remember, Cerdá said, is not only built on passenger travel. The movement of goods also plays a key role. “Last year, the industry crossed an important threshold: We connected over 22,000 city pairs across the world,” he said. “Never before in the history of aviation have we been better connected.” This year, however, that number decreased to 16,000 city points. “That means that about 6,000 cities, at this point, do not have connection,” he said. That decrease impacts commerce, but it will also affect how Covid-19 vaccines are eventually transported and distributed — a task Cerdá called “one of the most important missions that aviation has ever had.” Still, he remains optimistic about the future. Aviation’s resiliency is well documented throughout history, he said, and a rebound is not a matter of if, but when. “Aviation is part of the backbone of many parts of our economies across the world, and our well-being around the world,” he said. “People depend on aviation. … It is an industry that continues to evolve … and the pandemic has forced us to evolve quicker.” Additionally, orchestrating complex logistics remains a hallmark of those drawn to work in the field. “We have had to overcome so many different other challenges and crises in the past. We’ve had to reinvent ourselves and re-innovate ourselves as an industry, and I have no doubt we will be able to do that again,” Cerdá said. “It just might take awhile.” Dr. Alan Stolzer, dean of the College of Aviation on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus, agreed. The 2020 Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook projects that 763,000 new civil aviation pilots and 739,000 new maintenance technicians will be needed to fly and maintain the global fleet of aircraft over the next 20 years, assuming that air traffic recovers to 2019 levels within the next few years, he noted. “The demand for highly qualified aviation professionals, based on where it was pre-pandemic, will still be there once the health and economic crisis is over,” Stolzer said. “The demand for pilots and aviation maintenance professionals may even be heightened, given early retirements and openings that resulted when furloughed personnel moved into government, business and general aviation amid the pandemic.” Stolzer added that the general business aviation sector is doing well, and even when aircraft are in storage, they still must be maintained by skilled aviation maintenance professionals. Dr. Kenneth Witcher, dean of the College of Aeronautics for Embry-Riddle Worldwide, said further that “even now, some original equipment manufacturers for the Department of Defense (DoD), such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, have not seen a reduction in need for talent. In fact, Northrop Grumman has hired over 1,300 technicians since the beginning of the 2020 and still has a strong need for qualified candidates — specifically, professionals who have DoD secret clearances.” To learn more about the efforts the aviation industry has made to prioritize health and safety, Embry-Riddle’s Worldwide Campus will host a free “Safe to Fly” Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), later this month. A registration link will soon be available. The Oct. 21 webinar featuring Peter Cerdá is available for playback online. For recaps on prior guests, visit the Aviation Outlook website. https://news.erau.edu/headlines/covid-19-has-elevated-aviation-safety-to-new-heights-says-industry-leader ATP Launches Seamless Integration Between Flightdocs and Aviation Hub SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ATP, a leading provider of aviation software solutions and information services, is excited to announce the launch of a new integration between Flightdocs and the Aviation Hub. The integration gives users the ability to access their library of OEM technical publications and regulatory content from directly within the Flightdocs maintenance tracking platform. "When Flightdocs became part of the ATP family, one of the first things we wanted to do was create powerful integrations between our suite of products," says Rick Noble, CEO of ATP. "The launch of this new integration gives our customers instant access to maintenance manuals, technical publications, and regulatory information without leaving their maintenance system." The Aviation Hub provides users with access to over 1,700 technical publication libraries across 90 OEMs, as well as FAA and EASA regulatory content. With the launch of the new integration, Flightdocs users can instantly access their libraries from their maintenance due list, eliminating several steps in the process to get to aircraft maintenance manuals. "We continue to invest heavily in the evolution of the products we're delivering to aircraft owners, operators, and OEMs," said Greg Heine, Chief Strategy Officer at ATP. "The merge of ATP and Flightdocs just a few months ago strengthened our ability to develop new products, features, and integrations across all of our platforms. We're excited about this new launch and have numerous major releases planned over the next year." ATP will be attending the NBAA virtual event, VBACE, December 2-3rd, 2020 and will be showcasing this new integration and many new and exciting features on both the Flightdocs and Aviation Hub platforms. Click here for more information on the integration and how it can impact your flight department. About ATP ATP is the leading provider of aviation software and information services. ATP's innovative product line, including Flightdocs, Aviation Hub, ChronicX, and SpotLight, reduces operating costs, improves aircraft reliability, and supports technical knowledge sharing and collaboration in all aviation and aerospace industry sectors. ATP's products and services support more than 75,000 aircraft maintenance professionals worldwide. As a global company, ATP has more than 7,500 customers in 137 countries and partnerships with over 90 OEMs. For more information, visit www.atp.com. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/atp-launches-seamless-integration-between-flightdocs-and-aviation-hub-301166068.html Resolution would clear the way for improvements at American Airlines' maintenance facilities City councilors will vote on a resolution later this month approving the incurring of indebtedness by the trustees of the Tulsa Municipal Airport Trust for up to $375 million for improvements to American Airlines maintenance base. The funds will be used to finance, refinance and reimburse the costs of the work. The resolution was mistakenly placed on Wednesday night’s council agenda but was pulled prior to the meeting. “This authorizes them to go out to market and to actually sell the bonds,” said Kian Kamas, the city’s chief of economic development. The bonds are not an indebtedness of the state of Oklahoma or the city of Tulsa, nor are they secured by airport revenue, according to information provided to the City Council on Wednesday morning. American announced in February that it planned to spend $550 million on new improvements at its Tech Ops-Tulsa maintenance facility. The airline provided councilors with a list of more than 20 initial projects totaling $234.6 million that will be funded through the sale of revenue bonds. They include work on hangars, water and sewer line replacement, the reroofing of the facilities maintenance building, and replacement of the base’s fire system alarm. “The fact that they are investing in excess of $200 million in the base I think really signals that they are committed to being here,” Kamas said. “It is one of the few places that they are investing in in their entire global operations because they recognize the importance of the maintenance base and the work that is done in Tulsa.” American moved its maintenance facility from LaGuardia Airport in New York to Tulsa in 1946. Spanning more than 240 acres, with 22 buildings on the main base, it is the largest commercial aviation maintenance center in the world. Kamas said the city is proud of the partnership it has established with American and that it is glad to be able to work with the airline to maintain its strong presence in Tulsa. “I think they know and understand that the success of Tulsa equates to the success of American Airlines long term,” Kamas said. “It has been a long couple of months of work trying to figure out how we help them move forward, but we are excited to finally be at this point.” https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/resolution-would-clear-the-way-for-improvements-at-american-airlines-maintenance-facilities/article_3a8599fc-1ef3-11eb-aa37-d7c3e21fae08.html NASA, SpaceX delay launch of Sentinel-6 ocean-mapping satellite to Nov. 21 An ocean-monitoring satellite will have to wait at least 11 extra days to get into space. The U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite mission is now expected to launch on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 12:17 p.m. EST (1717 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. That's a delay from the prime Nov. 10 launch date. The SpaceX launch was delayed following problems with the Falcon 9 rocket line that stopped a GPS satellite launch for the U.S. Air Force on Oct. 2. So far, however, there is no delay for the first operational commercial crew mission, Crew-1, which will also use a Falcon 9 rocket to bring astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA added that the target launch date of Saturday, Nov. 14 for Crew-1 remains unchanged at this time. In a virtual press conference Oct. 16, NASA launch services program director Tim Dunn said SpaceX was working on resolving a rocket gas generator issue blamed for the GPS satellite launch abort. "As of today [Oct. 16] we have a path forward that allows us to do any necessary rework that would be required and maintain that Nov. 10 launch date," Dunn said during the press conference. But in a more recent NASA release, the agency said SpaceX will use the delay to finish Merlin engine testing and inspections on the Falcon 9, in light of the abort. "After completing engine testing and inspections, teams from NASA and SpaceX have determined that two engines on the Sentinel-6 rocket's first stage would need to be replaced to ensure optimal performance during launch," NASA said in the release on Tuesday (Nov. 3). "Work is now progressing to implement the engine change, and all engine hardware replacements will finish next week." Sentinel-6 will join a fast-growing network of Earth observation satellites monitoring our planet's global warming. Some of the chief contributions of the new mission will be better understanding the sources of sea rise and the movements of deep ocean currents. https://www.space.com/sentinel-6-ocean-satellite-launch-delay Curt Lewis