Middle East carriers set to deploy SITA's emissions management software tool for EU ETS compliance
(photo: Middle East Airlines)
Tue 20 Oct 2009 – Air transport IT specialist SITA has announced that following exhaustive testing 12 Middle East airlines are to use its Aircraft Emissions Manager software tool from next month for the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions in compliance with EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) regulations. The deployment follows a decision by the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) in July (see story) to be the first to endorse the software, which SITA claims is the only tool of its kind to accurately measure carbon emissions and fuel burn in tonne-kilometres as per the EU requirements. SITA warns that miscalculations in data reporting can have serious financial consequences for airlines.
SITA has already begun providing MRV support to carriers such as Middle East Airlines. “MEA is very pleased to have taken the decision to partner with SITA to build both the required monitoring plan and to collect and report the tonnes-kilometres and emissions data through the SITA Aircraft Emissions Manager,” said Captain Ossama Balaa, the airline’s Head of Technical Operations. “SITA’s knowledge and focus on this issue has made a real difference compared to other players in the industry. With its assistance, MEA was the first airline to submit its monitoring plan to the responsible authority.”
All 12 airlines – Afriqiyah Airways, EgyptAir Holding Company (which includes EgyptAir Airlines, EgyptAir Express and EgyptAir Cargo), Jordan Aviation, Kuwait Airways, Libyan Airlines, MEA, Oman Air, Royal Jordanian, Syrian Arab Airways and Yemen Airways – now have an ETS Project Owner working with cross-functional teams. SITA has developed a model which takes various inputs from the airlines’ operational data and combines these with financial assumptions in order to assist airline management in understanding the cost impact of the EU ETS.
“The Aircraft Emissions Manager will help these airlines to be compliant with the EU ETS requirement with a minimum of additional administrative cost,” said Frédéric Falise, Head of SITA’s Environment Programme. “Any miscalculation in tonne-kilometres or any difficulty in proving accuracy can put in jeopardy an airline’s ability to apply for their carbon allowance quotas. The Aircraft Emissions Manager is designed to avoid this possibility.”
Falise said the community approach adopted by AACO is advantageous when it comes to ETS regulation and believes there are signs that the strategy may be adopted in other parts of the world.
Ziad Haddad, Advisor Regulatory and Technical Affairs for Jordan Aviation, commented: “When Jordan Aviation investigated the consequences of being compliant with the EU ETS regulation, it became obvious that the reporting requirements were of a different order to what airlines normally do with operational data. This new regime requires exhaustive accuracy and traceability of data.”
