New green aviation routes across Asia Pacific skies

Seven new ‘green aviation routes’ have been introduced across Asia Pacific, developed by Airways New Zealand as part of its international commitment to decrease aviation’s environmental footprint in the region.

Airways has confirmed that the new routes across Asia Pacific have been validated as ASPIRE-Daily City Pairs under the ASPIRE – Asia and South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions – programme.

ASPIRE-Daily City Pairs are daily routes certified by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as using best practice procedures to reduce environmental impact. The new ASPIRE-Daily City Pairs developed by Airways are: Auckland-Singapore return; Christchurch-Singapore return; Los Angeles-Auckland return; and San Francisco-Auckland.

Airways is a founding member of ASPIRE and works with airlines and other partners to reduce the environmental impact of a flight by developing the best possible operational procedures and standards. Other ASPIRE partners are Airservices Australia, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, and AeroThai.

“The addition of these seven city pairs to our ASPIRE portfolio is a huge step forward for Airways’ contribution to the partnership,” says Airways CEO Ed Sims. “It’s a great outcome after many months of development work between us, our ASPIRE partners FAA, Airservices Australia and CAAS, and our partner airlines,” Mr Sims says.
Airways held one ASPIRE-Daily City Pair – Auckland-San Francisco – prior to the IATA validation of the seven new city-pairs. The New Zealand air navigation services provider has developed and gained validation for the seven new city pairs in the space of just one year.

“Our airline partners Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines played a significant role in the development of these new ‘green’ routes. We’re proud to be able to deliver to them gate-to-gate environmental best practice on the routes – in terms of air traffic control, reducing emissions, and enabling fuel savings,” Mr Sims says.
IATA awards a ranking of between three and five stars to each ASPIRE-Daily City Pair, indicating the level of environmental benefits provided by the route and valuable to airline customers. Five of the seven new city pairs developed by Airways have a four-star rating – the Singapore-Christchurch and Singapore-Auckland routes currently have a three-star rating.

Eight ASPIRE-Daily City Pairs have been implemented since the ASPIRE programme launch in February 2008.

Airways will host the annual ASPIRE conference next year, to be held in Queenstown, New Zealand in April. The ANSP has also continued its leadership role within ASPIRE by assisting Airports Fiji to join the ASPIRE group, with the aim to decrease air traffic’s environmental footprint in the South Pacific.