China Civil Aviation : Leaves No Stones Unturned in Reducing Carbon Emission

Early last year, CAAC issued ten policies in a bid to cope with the international financial crisis and spur the stable and rapid development of civil aviation. Among them, one of the important policy is to save energy and reduce carbon emission. The longer the plane taxied on the runway, the more fuel it consumed. Consequently, civil aviation departments adopted the measure of cutting down the taxiing time on runways. Early last year, CAAC requested that civil aviation air control department to enhance its commanding capability and spared no efforts to lessen three minutes average on every flight took on the runway, limiting the taxiing time within twenty minutes. Domestic airlines operate 5,000 flights per day, hence 250 hours daily can be saved with 3 minutes less taxiing time per flight. With supports of departments concerned, CAAC launched 35 interim direct flights last year. During the Civil Aviation Air Control Department Work Conference held on 25th, Wang Liya, Deputy Director General of Air Traffic Management Bureau of CAAC, revealed that through optimizing the flight routes continuously, such as direct flights to reduce the flying distance, was one major step for cutting carbon emission. Statistics showed the prior air routes distance total was shortened by 16 thousand kms. Thanks to this measure, 88 thousand tons of fuel worthed 440 million Yuan was saved with 275 thousand tons of carbon dioxide being reduced. During the spring festival travel season, Air Traffic Management Bureau of CAAC launched 16 interim flights and spared 2,400 tons of fuel that cutted down 7,600 tons of carbon dioxide emission. There were 77 such interim flights last year totaling 26,700 km flight distance, which took up 16.6% of China’s total flight distance. In all, domestic flights saved 8.6 million km flight distance and 48 thousand tons of fuel with a 150 thousand tons of carbon dioxide reduced.