12 Middle East carriers deploy world's first aircraft emissions manager

The deployment next month follows exhaustive testing and the submission - in consultation with SITA - of the airlines' Monitoring Plans for carbon dioxide emissions to the relevant EU authorities in compliance with new regulations on Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) for the aviation industry.

Captain Ossama Balaa, Head of Technical Operations, Middle East Airlines, said:

"MEA is very pleased to have taken the decision to partner with SITA to build both the required Monitoring Plan and to collect and report the Tonne Kilometres and Emissions data through the SITA Aircraft Emissions Manager. SITA's knowledge and focus on this issue has made a real difference compared to other players in the industry. With SITA's assistance MEA was the first airline to submit the MRV plan to the responsible authority."

All 12 airlines now have an ETS Project Owner working with cross-functional teams and SITA has developed a model which takes various inputs from the airlines' operational data and combines these with financial assumptions in order to assist airline management in understanding the cost impact of the EU-ETS.

Frederic Falise, Head of SITA's Environment Programme said: "The Aircraft Emissions Manager will help these airlines to be compliant with the EU-ETS requirement with a minimum of additional administrative cost. Any miscalculation in Tonne-Kilometres or any difficulty in proving accuracy can put in jeopardy an airline's ability to apply for their carbon allowance quotas. The Aircraft Emissions Manager is designed to avoid this possibility.

"We are convinced that the community approach adopted by the Arab Air Carriers Organization is a good strategy for facing an uncertain future when it comes to ETS regulation. There are signs that other parts of the world may adopt a similar approach."

The Aircraft Emissions Manager will also support the requirement that ETS related information must be stored for ten years.

Ziad Haddad, Advisor Regulatory and Technical Affairs, Jordan Aviation, said: "When Jordan Aviation investigated the consequences of being compliant with the EU-ETS regulation, it became obvious that the EU-ETS reporting requirements was of a different order to what airlines normally do with operational data. This new regime requires exhaustive accuracy and traceability of data. SITA's Aircraft Emissions Manager will enable Jordan Aviation to meet all the regulatory and operational requirements to satisfy the EU authorities."

The first adopters of SITA's Aircraft Emissions Manager are:, Afriqiyah Airways, EgyptAir Holding Company (which includes EgyptAir Airlines, EgyptAir Express and EgyptAir Cargo), Jordan Aviation, Kuwait Airways, Libyan Airlines, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air, Royal Jordanian, Syrian Arab Airways and Yemen Airways.