Thomsonfly has introduced a tankering trial for its flights at Coventry Airport that could lead to fuel efficiency savings and reduction of CO2 levels generated across the aviation industry. Tankering is the practice of filling fuel tanks at an airport which offers the low fuel prices and carrying this fuel for a series of flights - the most environmentally efficient method is to upload purely the fuel required for the next flight - of course this calculation always includes enough fuel for the use in the event of unforeseen circumstances such as the need to divert to a different airport.

Mike Morton, Operations Director at Coventry Airport, initiated the reduction of fuel tankering when he proposed to lower the price of its fuel if Thomsonfly was to increase the volume of fuel it would buy at Coventry. Following negotiations with the airport from June 1 this year Thomsonfly has reduced fuel tankering through Coventry to zero. This is great news as Thomsonfly will reduce emissions by 138 tons of Carbon Dioxide in the next 12 months purely with this initiative.

Ian Ludlow, Thomsonfly’s Director of Engineering and Maintenance and head of the airline’s Fuel Conservation and Emission Reduction Team, said, “We are constantly evaluating ways to provide the efficiency of our fleet of aircraft and out flying programme. This fuel tankering work is a great initiative that has benefits for the environment. The opportunity to reduce emissions through tankering are significant so we hope that Coventry will be the first of many similar schemes.”

Based on trial months of June, July and August at Coventry, and concurrent work that is happening within TUI Airline Management based in Hanover, TUI will look to identify airports across the globe where it is possible to stop tankering on its fleet aircraft.

The environmental benefits of this new practice will be far reaching as TUI is the first airline to focus on fuel tankering as a way of reducing environmental impact. The company will share its findings with other airlines as part of its ongoing work to assist and inform on how to reduce emissions of the airline industry.

This is the latest in a series of fuel efficiency initiatives introduced by Thomsonfly including direct approaches to airports, using ground power at airports rather than running on the aircraft’s auxiliary power units and installing lightweight carpets. Fleet renewal also plays a key part in Thomsonfly’s environment strategy - the airline has taken delivery of three brand new more fuel efficient Boeing 737-800s which replace older larger aircraft. Last month TUI AG announced that in the future Thomsonfly would take delivery of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft - which will break new ground in aircraft efficiency as it is made from lightweight carbon composite.

For further information view the Transport page of the Sustainable Tourism section of the Thomson website   www.thomson.co.uk/sustainabletourism/transport.
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