Perth-Singapore part of user-preferred routing trial

Reduced flight time, fuel use and emissions are some of the benefits expected from a new user-preferred routing (UPR) trial involving the air navigation service providers (ANSP) of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia, and airlines Qantas, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Garuda.

The Perth-Singapore route is one of 38 scheduled routes to benefit from the UPR trial, during which pilots can choose the most efficient and direct route to their destination.

For a three-month period, pilots operating flights on 38 scheduled services between Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore will be able to choose the best routing, based on prevailing wind and weather, rather than using predefined routes. The partners will review the trial after three months and decide on operationalising the program and expanding UPR to include more cities and airlines in the region.

ANSPs in the region already use UPRs in their own managed airspace, with Airservices Australia, for example, deploying it in Australian-managed airspace over the Pacific and Indian oceans and across large parts of upper airspace across Australia, and Airways New Zealand offering UPRs within New Zealand-administered airspace. Its use on international routes has been limited to date, however, due to the complexity of coordinating routes across international airspace boundaries and managed by different ANSPs.

Flights involved in the trial started earlier this month. Airservices Australia estimates a flight on the Denpasar-Melbourne route could save around 100kg of fuel per flight using UPRs, or 26 tonnes over the course of a year if operating five times per week. This equates to a saving of more than 82 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore says by operating daily Singapore-Melbourne flights, airlines could potentially save up to 1700kg of fuel and over 1,960 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

“Working with airlines to enable them to reduce emissions is central to our environment and sustainability strategy, aligned to the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s long-term aspirational goal for the global aviation sector to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” says Rob Sharp, Interim CEO of Airservices Australia.