Because airplanes are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, some airlines are looking to restructure the way they book flights in an attempt to reduce their carbon footprints.
CNN reports that, with the sky just cleared thanks to the pandemic, interrupting most trips, the air spaces are relatively empty. An agreement between NATS and NAV Canada, the agencies that oversee air travel in the UK and Canadian airspace, said they will temporarily ignore the prescribed travel routes that pilots are required to take, allowing airlines choose your paths “based entirely on the ideal route, speed and trajectory.”
“The dramatic drop in traffic that we saw across the Atlantic gave us a window of opportunity to do things differently and present things more quickly than would otherwise be possible,” NATS officials told reporters.
The adoption of new flight routes offers airlines opportunities to identify potential ways to save fuel and emit less carbon into the atmosphere.
“Our hope is that analyzing these flights, together with other table exercises, will give us the evidence base we need to decide on the value of more permanent changes,” said NATS.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its first regulations on airline emissions at the end of 2020.