ENAV: thanks to Free Route, 30 million kg of fuel saved and 95 million kg reduction of CO2 emissions in 2017

In 2017, airlines that flew over the skies of Italy saved approximately 30 million kg of fuel with a lower emission of CO2 into the atmosphere of about 95 million kg. Considering an average cost of jet fuel of € 0.74 per kg, the benefit to carriers exceeded 22 million euro.

This important result was achieved thanks to the Free Route procedures implemented by ENAV – first among the largest European service providers - whereby all aircraft flying over Italian airspace at an altitude exceeding 11,000 metres, can choose a direct path without having to follow the route network.

ENAV’s CEO Roberta Neri stated: These figures demonstrate the Company's ability to relentlessly seek and deliver innovative solutions and to create value, with the aim of providing benefits for our customers, our stakeholders, the environment and the entire sector. In order to deploy Free Route, we invested in technology and in training our air traffic controllers, who confirmed their strong professionalism. We are already working on lowering the Free Route altitude to 9,000 metres by the summer, almost 4 years earlier than indicated in the European directive.

Thanks to the significant benefits of planning shorter routes and, given the excellent performance provided by ENAV in terms of punctuality and quality of service, in 2017 a number of new routes began crossing the Italian airspace:

• The Istanbul-Caracas flight flew over Italy 108 times in 2017 with an average
• distance per flight of about 730 km;
• The Istanbul-Havana flight flew over Italy 165 times in 2017 with an average
• distance per flight of about 575 km;
• The Shangai-Barcellona flight flew over Italy 96 times in 2017 with an average
• distance per flight of about 490 km;

There are also many other flights that increased the frequency they flew over Italy in 2017
as well their average distance. For example:

• The Paris-Tel Aviv flight crossed Italy 54 times in 2016 out of a total of 344 flights, while in 2017 it crossed Italy 522 times out of a total of 580 flights with an average additional distance per flight of approximately 540 km compared to 2016;
• The London-Athens flight crossed Italy 1838 times in 2016 out of a total of 2223 flights, while in 2017 it crossed Italy 1907 times with an average additional distance per flight of about 240 km.