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Project: UK Aviation: Carbon Reduction Futures

Reference: AED 0703

Last update: 28/07/2009 12:22:09

Objectives

1) To identify abatement options which might deliver savings from domestic aviation before 2022 and those that could deliver long term savings up to 2050.

2) To provide a credible and independent view of the potential for technological and operational improvements in aviation including potential initiatives to deliver CO2 savings from UK domestic aviation.

3) To provide estimates of potential CO2 savings and estimated financial costs, quantified where possible, along with timeframes, interdependencies with other emissions and barriers to change.

Description

The project will focus on potential policy measures and interventions available to the UK domestic aviation to reduce CO2 emissions. Domestic aviation is defined as internal flights. The study will identify the main technological and opeartional options as well as potential regulatory measures, for achieving CO2 reductions within domestic aviation. The study will also identify the main knowledge gaps and uncertainties that need to be addressed to identify least cost options for environmemt abatement in the avitaion industry.

Contractor(s)

Cranfield University
The Cranfield Centre for Logistics and Transportation, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 OAL
01234 751122

Manchester Metropolitan University
All Saints Buidling, All Saints, Manchester, UK, M15 6BH

Contract details

Cost to the Department: £53,425.00

Actual start date: 13 May 2008

Actual completion date: 15 December 2008

Publication(s)

UK Aviation: Carbon Reduction Futures - Final Report
Author: The Centre for Air Transport and the Environment at Manchester Metropolitan University and Cranfield University
Publication date: 01/07/2009
Source: DfT website
More information: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/carbonreductionfutures/finalreport.pdf

Summary of results

  1. The most cost effective measures in the short to medium term appear to be associated with: increasing the use of capacity, reducing take-off weight, adopting in flight fuel-saving practices, matching airplanes to the short hauls of the UK sector, employing in-situ engine wash maintenance technologies and, by 2020 introducing European scale ATM improvements that reduce travel distance.

    High fuel prices are likely to encourage early retirement and replacement of airplanes with those that incorporate improved airframe and engine design for fuel efficiency

    It is difficult to predict the efficacy of intervention measures beyond 2020 that are associated with Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe.