Airbus and several major airline and air navigation partners have completed a new phase of trials as part of the Airbus fello’fly project — which aims to leverage wake energy to reduce jet fuel consumption.
Airline partners on the latest trials included Air France, Delta Air Lines, French bee, and Virgin Atlantic, while operating partners included EUROCONTROL, AirNav Ireland, the UK’s NATS, and France’s Directorate of Air Navigation Service (DSNA).
fello’fly takes inspiration from migrating geese and showcases the power of collaboration by pairing flights to reduce fuel consumption.
With this flying technique, the first aircraft creates an uplift that drives fuel efficiency for the following aircraft, through a process known as “wake energy retrieval”.
Once operational, wake energy retrieval has the potential to make fuel savings of up to 5% on long-haul flights, Airbus said.
Corneel Koster, chief customer and operating officer and soon-to-be CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said Fello’fly is an example of “innovation inspired by nature” that will ultimately reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions.
“We are proud to be an active part of these state-of-the-art trials with Airbus and industry partners,” said Koster.
“Safety is paramount every step of the way and we have some way to go before formation flights can become a regular feature of our skies, but the proven success of the pairing stage is a huge step forward.”
The latest trials featured eight flights over the North Atlantic Sea between September and October 2025, conducted in the frame of the SESAR Joint Undertaking GEESE project.
The aim was to show that the operational concept is a feasible and safe method to guide two aircraft to meet at a precise time and place (the “rendezvous process”), while maintaining full vertical separation and remaining compliant with air traffic regulations.
While the wake energy retrieval has not been tested yet on commercial flights, the successful completion of the rendezvous process is a “crucial first step” towards doing so, said Airbus.
Each trial required close coordination between the two airlines’ ground operational control centres, four air traffic control centres, and two flight crews.
The completed trials successfully validated a rigorous four-step process designed to manage the high-precision manoeuvres required.
This process begins when the Airbus Pairing Assistance Tool (PAT) computes the new aircraft trajectories and shared rendezvous instructions in real time.
Next, the airlines' dispatcher, flight crew, and air traffic control (ATC) assess the new trajectories to ensure operational acceptability.
The EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub interface allows all stakeholders to have visibility of the decision status at any given moment.
The third step involves one of the participating flights changing its planned route to join the other.
Finally, both flight crews activate a cockpit function, committing the aircraft to arrive at the meeting point at an exact, predetermined time.