Green flights over the Atlantic with SAS this autumn

During the latter part of 2007, SAS will begin green flights over the Atlantic, primarily from the east coast of the US to Stockholm/Arlanda. The flights will be made on Airbus A330’s.

We view this as a natural development of the existing joint green flights project between SAS Sverige and LFV (the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration). To date, 1,500 green approaches have been implemented with SAS Sverige's Boeing 737 at Arlanda.

The saving potential resulting from green approaches with a Boeing 737 is an average of 150 kilograms aircraft fuel or approximately 475 kilograms carbon dioxide per landing at Arlanda. Since a long-route aircraft is larger and heavier, the saving potential is approximately 200 - 300 kilo aircraft fuel or approximately 600 - 950 kilo carbon dioxide per landing.

"We are first in the world to use technical support to implement green approaches and are very happy to be able to jointly continue the already established path to also include the project with intercontinental green flights. We are fully convinced that this is the future," says SAS and LFV jointly.

At a press conference during the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget recently, the EU and the US Federation of Aviation Administration (FAA) presented expanded cooperation aimed at harmonizing flights over the Atlantic and becoming more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

SAS and LFV view this as an acknowledgement and excellent European example to be included as two important members in the cooperation project known as AIRE (Atlantic Interoperability Initiative to Reduce Emissions), through our joint concept to develop new methods and efficiency to save fuel and develop the logistic chain through higher precision and thereby better predictability in terms of flights arrivals.

Flights over the North Atlantic will commence during the latter part of 2007 and will also involve aircraft manufacturer Airbus, with a view to inspecting new technology onboard and how it can be improved in cooperation between aviation systems on the ground.

"Our concept and technology facilitate the efficient implementation of green flights and we believe that in the future additional airlines will adopt our ideas and work methods to include more airports primarily in Sweden and the Nordic region, and also have a greater impact in Europe."

For more information, visit Flysas.com.