Collaborative tool developed by Airways New Zealand delivers significant savings in emissions and costs
Wed 13 Jan 2010 – New Zealand’s air navigation services provider Airways New Zealand has revealed that its Collaborative Arrivals Manager (CAM) tool has helped to reduce CO2 emissions by around 32 million kilos during 2009 across the total New Zealand fleet, comprising Air New Zealand, Pacific Blue and Jet Star. It has also contributed to fuel savings for airlines of NZ$15 million (US$11m) over the year. CAM enables airlines to jointly agree on priority flights and reschedule their services by matching demand to capacity and avoid congestion at the country’s three main trunk airports. The ANSP says holding patterns in the air and engine idling on the ground have been significantly reduced.
“CAM is another example of Airways developing technology in partnership with our airline customers,” said Airways Capacity Management Specialist, Chris McGaw. “There were existing products on the world market but they were over-engineered and expensive. We needed to develop a solution that would suit the local market and which the airlines could afford. So that’s what we did.
“Other countries are now looking to us for leadership on how to implement the technology in their part of the world and in doing so, make a significant contribution to the global environment.”
McGaw said Air New Zealand had conservatively estimated that CAM had contributed to NZ$12 million savings in fuel costs over the year, with Pacific Blue saving over NZ$1 million. Airways is currently working with Jet Star to integrate the airline into the CAM system.
Prior to the introduction of CAM into Auckland in November 2008, delays resulted in an extra 276,850kgs of fuel consumption at a cost of NZ$387,590 during the month of June 2008. In June 2009, the respective figures had fallen to 56,530kgs and NZ$79,142. Data from international arrivals into Auckland shows that extra fuel consumption from delays fell from 97,615kgs in July 2008 to 268kgs in July 2009, with fuel costs declining from NZ$136,661 to NZ$13,132.
“CAM has certainly proven its worth,” said McGaw. “It has saved airlines money, reduced the impact of delays on their customers and allowed Airways to make progress on our mission, which is to help our customers succeed.”
