SIA's 'Capital Express' service to Canberra, Wellington goes green

Last month's Inaugural flights saved almost 22,000 kg of carbon emissions.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) joined a growing number of airline operators launching 'green routes' aimed at reducing emission.

Airservices, Australia’s air navigation service provider, announced yesterday that SIA's new ‘Capital Express’ service between Singapore, Canberra and Wellington has been unveiled as the latest addition to the Asia South Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) programme.

Under the programme, SQ291 and SQ292 flights will be as environmentally friendly as possible through the utilisation of a range of ASPIRE practices, including: making use of favourable winds, reducing airborne holding, enabling efficient ‘continuous descent’ arrivals, and reducing taxi times.

The ASPIRE programme is a partnership between six air navigation agencies and ten partner airlines, focused on reducing the environmental impact of aviation through operational means across Asia and the Pacific.

According to Airservices, the inaugural ‘Capital Express’ flights on 20 and 21 September saved almost 7,000 kg of fuel across the four sectors, which equates to an approximate saving of around 22,000 kg of carbon emissions.

The results were achieved by using 25 of a possible 32 efficient flight operations and air traffic management practices on all four sectors of the new service.

According to Airservices, it is expected that over the course of a year the ASPIRE programme will help the ‘Capital Express’ flights save around 1.5 million kilograms of fuel and 4.6 million kilograms of carbon emissions, which is the equivalent of taking approximately 970 cars off the road.