Flexible Use of Airspace concept saves aviation fuel worth Rs 300 crore, cuts carbon footprint by 75,000 tonnes
Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, August 8
The implementation of the Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) concept in the country has enabled a reported fuel savings worth around Rs 300 crore for different airlines besides reducing the carbon footprint by 75,000 tonnes.
Revealing this in its latest report tabled in Parliament during the ongoing session, the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture has asked the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Defence to proactively coordinate among themselves to ensure success of the FUA policy.
At present, under FUA 89 Temporary Reserved Areas (TRAs) and 16 Temporary Segregated Areas (TSA) have been established in accordance with norms of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and a total of 128 Conditional Routes (CDRs) have been implemented.
Out of a total 105 TRAs and TSAs, 98 are managed in a flexible manner through Airspace Management Cells (AMCs).
In addition, 40 danger areas and one restricted area of the Army have been de-notified and upper limit of two danger areas has been brought down to 10,000 feet from 37,000 feet, the report said.
In December 2022, the Ministry of Defence, had also issued a policy for the requirement of an Air Operation Routing Number and flight clearance in respect of non-scheduled civil aircraft operating from defence airfields.
“The adoption of the FUA policy has led to substantial fuel savings for the airlines and also a consequent reduction of carbon footprint. The Committee is of the opinion that this environment friendly initiative should be fully encouraged as it would decrease the impact on the environment and also ensure savings for the airlines on account of fuel,” the Committee remarked in its report.
In March 2013, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had approved the FUA concept that had been mooted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for sharing the use of airspace by military as well as civilian users keeping in mind national security issues as well as the growing requirements of the civilian airlines.
This involved tweaking air traffic routes to shorten them and allowing them to overfly certain areas that were earlier restricted.
The primary objective of FUA is to enhance airspace capacity, minimize delays, fuel conservation and emission reduction.
FUA permits both military and civil users to efficiently and effectively share the available airspace in a coordinated manner to gain optimum usage, thereby enhancing its capacity and leading to efficient operations.
According to available information, the civil aviation sector constitutes 6-8 per cent of the total transport emissions in India and with continuous growth, expansion of aircraft fleet and increasing number of flights, the level of emissions is expected to go up.
FUA, along with other operational measures such as single engine taxiing, continuous descent approach, airport carbon accreditation programmes and use of bio-based sustainable aviation fuel in the aviation sector are being implemented to reduce the carbon footprint.
