MOBILIZING DEVELOPMENT

37 Mobilizing Sustainable Transport for Development
Improving Aviation Sustainability Through Performance Based Navigation
Air traffic is expected to increase worldwide. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) projects that
departures on scheduled air services worldwide will increase from 33 million per year today to over 60 million
by 2030. 79
Reliance on ground-based air navigation systems poses a barrier to safely increasing air transport capacity, efficiency
and environmental integrity. Enabled by satellite-based systems, Performance Based Navigation (PBN) capabilities
can help overcome that barrier. PBN frees aircraft from the less efficient ground-based navigation routings and allows
for more direct routings that increase capacity while reducing emissions. Ground-based radar effectively restricts
aircraft to designated ‘lanes’ in the airspace, zig-zagging in relation to where the radar towers and controllers are
and with conservative separation distances. Satellite-based PBN allows for more point-to-point and precise routes --
reducing flight time and resulting fuel burn and emissions.
For example, Brazil implemented PBN in specified air corridors via its SIRIUS programme. Due to PBN, 930 nautical
miles could be cut out of various routes within these corridors. As stated by ICAO in the 2014 Air Navigation Report,
this would result in annual savings of 203,000 metric tons of jet fuel and a reduction of 640,000 tons of CO 2
per
year. 80 The United States is pursuing PBN through its “NextGen” program, which is estimated to result in a cumulative
reduction of 16 million metric tons of CO 2
by 2020. 81 Europe is pursuing it under its Single European Sky Air Traffic
Management Research program, targeting a 10% reduction in CO 2
per flight.
While full PBN implementation is hampered by country-specific challenges, including bureaucratic inefficiencies,
finance and the ability to work across sovereign boundaries, ICAO keeps building capacities to facilitate the uptake of
PBN worldwide.
Evolution to Performance-Based Navigation
Current Ground
NAVAIDs
Conventional
Routes
RNAV
Waypoints
RNP
Narrow Obstacle
Clearance Areas
Seamless
Vertical Path
“curved”
paths
Limited Design
Flexibility
Increased Airspace
Efficiency
Optimized Use
of Airspace
Connected to Recommendations: 1, 2, 3, 10