Heathrow on track for a quieter and greener year

• More airlines are modernising their fleet to incorporate newer, quieter aircraft
• More than one in five aircraft landing at Heathrow this year are expected to be ‘Chapter 14 Low’ – the quietest aircraft available
• Latest Fly Quiet and Green results see Aer Lingus, SAS and BA (short-haul) land podium finish in race to be the ‘quietest and greenest’ from April to June this year
• Turkish Airlines is the latest carrier to upgrade its fleet of aircraft and make an impressive leap in the quarterly league table

Results from Heathrow’s latest Fly Quiet and Green quarterly league table – ranking Heathrow’s busiest 50 airlines based on their performance from April to June  –  proves airlines are working hard to modernise their fleet and advance their position in the table. Heathrow has estimated more than one 1 in 5 aircraft landing at the airport this year are set to be ‘Chapter 14 Low’ – the quietest type of aircraft available – an increase from the 16% seen in 2017.

Leading the charge this quarter is Turkish Airlines (long-haul), who are the latest airline to modernise their fleet to include more Boeing 777’s. The Turkish carrier has moved into 17^th place on the league table, up 25 spots from last quarter. Improved ability to fly within the specified departure routes known as ‘noise preferential routes’ (NPRs) has also helped improve their position.

Scandinavian Airlines have been knocked off the top spot by Aer Lingus, which has moved up three places from last quarter to claim first. The Scandinavian carrier now sits in second place, followed closely by British Airways (short-haul) in third. The top three performers scored highly in six of the seven noise and emission metrics used to rank airlines. All three have shown a clear upward trend in their use of a quieter arrivals procedure “Continuous Descent Approach” (CDA) and better adherence to the NPRs. 

Another strong performer is Oman Air which have also been working closely with the Heathrow team to improve their position by 11 places from last quarter.  Saudi Arabian Airlines are expected to make improvements over the next quarters, due to their active engagement with Heathrow’s operational team. The airline has also just taken delivery of a new system which allows them to see how each aircraft has performed on measures like CDA and track keeping,  within 20 minutes of arriving at Heathrow, and for them engage with the flight crews to drive up performance.

Matt Gorman, Heathrow’s Director of Sustainability said:

“The latest league table results raises the bar for airlines, who have shown that they remain committed to flying quieter and greener. 

“Our local communities are at the heart of this programme. Heathrow will continue to work closely with our airline partners to improve results even further, as part of our mission to be a better neighbour.”

Each quarter, Heathrow publishes this league table showing a red/amber/green rating for seven noise and emissions criteria. In doing so, Heathrow not only aims to recognise good performance but ensures our noise and emissions experts are able to provide airlines with regular feedback and identify specific areas to be targeted for improvement. Heathrow will engage with airlines showing red results in the latest league table to improve their rating.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors:

Information on the Fly Quiet and Green programme, along with the current table and previous rankings can be found at www.heathrowflyquietandgreen.com/

Watch Heathrow Fly Quiet and Clean League explained www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=68&v=EBBphRtfhhY

The Fly Quiet and Green league table presents an expanded version of Heathrow’s successful Fly Quiet programme, which has tracked airlines’ noise performance since 2013 and incentivised airlines to use their quieter aircraft types and operating procedures at the airport. 

The 7 metrics explained:

Each metric is assigned a “RAG” (Red, Amber, Green) status based on the performance bands set for that indicator. As a result operators towards the top of the table will typically have more ‘green scores’ than those towards the bottom. Individual metric scores will not be published.

Where the table shows amber dots, the airlines have met Heathrow’s minimum performance targets and green dots show they have exceeded them. If the airline has a red dot in a particular area, we work closely with them to improve performance.

Noise quota/seat

This is a relative noise “efficiency” metric which scores the noise efficiency of an operator’s fleet, recognising that whilst larger aircraft tend to be noisier they also carry more passengers. It is calculated by dividing the sum of quota count points (QC) for arrivals and departures by the aggregate seat capacity. Just like all other metrics, the product of the calculation described is divided by number of movements; this provides a balance between a QC/seat or QC/movement metric which will tend to overly bias long haul or short haul carriers respectively.

Chapter number (noise certification)

Each aircraft is required to have a noise certificate which can be used to determine its relative performance against ICAO noise standards called Chapters. This allows us to recognise “best in class” and compare performance across different fleets that airlines operate on their flights to and from Heathrow. In the first step, a ‘nominal’ Chapter number score is assigned on the basis of the certification of the aircraft associated with each individual flight, using the scoring mechanism as shown in the table below. In the second step, in order to account for the increased sensitivity of neighbouring communities to noise in the evening and night hours, a time adjustment factor is applied to the ‘nominal’ Chapter number score for flights operated in the evening period (between 19:00 and 23:00 local time) and in the night time period (between 23:00 and 07:00 local time), as explained below. Using these principles we favour airlines that operate modern, quieter aircraft.

For more information on Chapter number charging categories please refer to Heathrow’s Conditions of Use (visit heathrow.com and search for “Conditions of Use”).

The points above are adjusted by a factor of 1.5 and a factor of 2 for evening (19:00-23:00 local time) and night (23:00-07:00 local time) periods respectively.

NOx emissions/seat

This is a relative emissions “efficiency” metric which is in many ways similar to the noise quota/seat in the noise metrics set. For each arrival and departure we calculate the total mass of NOx emissions, based on the certified values and accounting for the number of engines for the aircraft associated with individual flights. The aggregate of certified NOx emissions for all flights of an airline are then divided by the aggregate seat capacity.

CAEP Standard (engine emissions certification)

Each engine has to be certified against the emissions standards produced and published by the ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection. This allows us to recognise the use of clean technology by giving better scores to aircraft that are compliant with the more recent and more stringent CAEP standards. Taking into account the specific aircraft associated with each arrival and departure, we determine the CAEP standard compliance and assign a specific score against each flight based on the table below. The score is based on the certification value for a single engine, which means that a twin-engine aircraft the engines of which are compliant with CAEP 6 standard gets the same score as a quad-engine aircraft the engines of which are compliant with the same standard.

Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) violations

CDA involves arriving aircraft maintaining a steady angle of approach during the descent towards the airport, as opposed to a stepped approach which involves periods of prolonged level flight. This reduces noise because it requires less engine thrust and keeps the aircraft higher for longer. By following a CDA on arrival, the noise on the ground can be reduced by up to 5dBA in areas away from the final approach paths. The purpose of the indicator is to capture the non-CDA arrivals and so potentially reduce the disturbance caused.

Track keeping (TK) violations

Aircraft are required to stay within the corridors of ‘noise preferential routes’ (NPRs) – 3km-wide corridors in the sky, designated by the Government to route aircraft away from more densely populated areas as far as possible – until they reach 4000ft above mean sea level. The track deviations indicator is expressed as the proportion of departures that flew outside the NPRs below 4000ft. The purpose of the indicator is to capture the aircraft which operate outside of these boundaries and so potentially cause unexpected noise disturbance. Instances where this occurs for reasons outside of the airline’s control are excluded for the calculation.

Early or late movements between 23:30 and 04:30

This metric focuses on flights that take place during the time period within which the neighbouring communities are most sensitive to aircraft noise. For the purpose of this metric, we count the night flights that have operated between 23:30 and 04:30 local time and have not been granted a dispensation (e.g. due to medical emergency) and that are not exempt from the night quota system.