Minimize food waste, fly with wind currents, delay engine start. Thanks to a series of measures, an Air France plane has halved CO emissions2 of his Paris-Montreal flight.
Posted at 11:16 a.m.
Tuesday 5:45 p.m. The Airbus A350 lands at Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International Airport in Montreal. The crew rejoices. ” It’s the future. To survive, we have to show that we are eco-responsible and that we preserve the planet as best as we can, ”says the captain, François Guérin, as he exits the plane.
The objective of this series of measures? Complete the world’s most eco-responsible long-distance commercial flight in a challenge offered by the Skyteam airline alliance. From 1er as of May 14, 16 airlines are competing to achieve the most sustainable flight possible.
To achieve this, many initiatives were implemented before and during the flight between Paris and Montreal. First, passengers were asked to limit the volume and weight of their luggage and encouraged to pre-select their meals in order to limit food waste, says Air France customer experience director Fabien Pelous.
The captain also practiced eco-piloting, which notably includes planning his trajectory according to wind currents and the use of a single engine before take-off. These measures have reduced fuel consumption by 3 to 4%.
In addition, ground operations including pushing back the plane, transporting crews by bus and moving luggage were carried out using electric vehicles, explains the director of Air France KLM Canada, Catherine Guillemart.
Finally, an Airbus A350 type aircraft was used, since it consumes 20 to 25% less fuel than previous generation aircraft, the company maintains. The noise footprint is also reduced by a third.
“A good gesture, but a lot of marketing”
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Catherine Guillemart, director of Air France KLM Canada, captains François Guérin and Julie de Haas as well as Fabien Pelous, director of customer experience at Air France
According to Mehran Ebrahimi, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and director of the International Observatory of Aeronautics and Civil Aviation, Skyteam’s eco-responsible flight challenge is “a good gesture”, but based on “a lot of marketing”.
“We have to make sure that this kind of initiative is not just used to buy a good conscience. We have to make sure that the aircraft of the future is truly responsible,” says Mr. Ebrahimi.
He maintains that with the public’s awareness of environmental issues in recent years, aviation had no choice but to restore its image. “People started asking questions, so the aviation community took steps to reduce its ecological footprint,” he says.
The use of more advanced technologies and artificial intelligence, as in the Air France flight, is a good start, the expert argues. “Airlines and manufacturers are putting a lot of effort into thinking about and developing these new technologies,” he says.
But we must also completely rethink our relationship to the plane and to travel, he adds. “If we take a plane flight from Montreal to Toronto, even if there are all the possible ecological measures on board, it doesn’t make sense. The journeys that we can make by train or public transport, we should not do it by plane, ”he says. These reflections are sometimes forgotten and hidden behind marketing initiatives, concludes the specialist.