New technology to allow Heathrow to prioritise emission targets

Heathrow will soon be able to measure and choose to prioritise the environmental performance of arriving flights through technology developed by air traffic service provider NATS. NATS has rolled out a suite of new environment performance-based features for the demand capacity balancer (DCB), which has been used in Heathrow since 2015. The DCB has thus-far allowed the airport to measure the impact of factors that influence on time performance, allowing for greater punctuality. The new suite will allow Heathrow to measure the efficiency of arriving aircraft and to identify the best daily operating plan to deliver the schedule, as well as minimise aircraft CO2 emissions. ""Small incremental steps like this are vital to reduce ‘in the air’ emissions to reach Heathrow’s goal of net zero by 2050,"" said Heathrow head of airport operations Kelly Stone. NATS Services managing director Guy Adams added: ""DCB is a proven success at Heathrow, helping save several millions of pounds a year by reducing delay, so it makes perfect sense to harness that same analytical technology to include environmental performance."" DCB was jointly developed by NATS and Frequentis. The new environmental tools are due to go live at the airport in November this year.