ENAIRE promotes environmental sustainability through its initiatives in airspace design and its renewable energy deployment plan

The Association of Aeronautical Engineers of Spain held its 3rd Aviation Climate Conference today, which was opened by its Dean, José Manuel Hesse.

Enrique Maurer, ENAIRE's CEO, took part in the roundtable on "Sustainability, the main challenge for aviation", with Javier Gándara, chairman of the Association of Airlines; Elena Mayoral, Managing Director of Airports at Aena; and David Benito, General Director of Civil Aviation. The debate was moderated by Esther Apesteguía, general editorial coordinator at FlyNews.

During his speech, ENAIRE's CEO emphasised the efforts being made by Spanish air traffic control centres and towers to facilitate continuous descent procedures during approaches to major airports. "From January to October 2023, 35% of the descents authorised by ENAIRE at major airports were continuous descent operations (more efficient), compared to an average at the main European airports of 14% in the same period, which places ENAIRE as the leading air navigation service provider in terms of continuous descents", Maurer noted.

In addition, thanks to the airspace re-structuring projects endorsed by ENAIRE, the data available for the first ten months of the year are very positive in terms of ENAIRE's commitment to help aviation become more and more sustainable. According to these figures, air traffic increased by 10% during the first ten months of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Although it would be logical to think that an increase in traffic could be related to a drop in the efficiency of the route network, the efficiency of routes with this increase in air traffic has improved thanks to the measures taken by ENAIRE. As a result, in the first ten months of the year, we avoided flying 221,000 nautical miles, equivalent to 409,000 km (almost 10 times around the Earth), which reduced atmospheric CO2 emissions by 7,600 tonnes and saved 2,400 tonnes of fuel.

Three areas of action

ENAIRE's CEO explained that ENAIRE is tackling the challenge of environmental sustainability globally, and, as an air navigation service provider, the company is taking action primarily in three areas of activity:

- Reducing atmospheric emissions (in parallel with reduced fuel consumption).

- Attenuating noise levels and reducing its effect on biodiversity in and around airports.

- Improving the environmental management in our own centres and facilities.

In order to quantify the improvements promoted by ENAIRE's initiatives in its Strategic Plans (2020 and 2025 Flight Plans), between 2017 and 2022, over 8 million nautical miles were avoided, which is equivalent to 370 trips around the Earth, while also avoiding almost 285,000 tonnes of CO₂.

In terms of the actions to reduce noise pollution, Maurer noted that "we collaborate closely with the Civil Aviation General Directorate and AENA to reduce noise pollution in cities and towns near airports. We are designing an ambitious noise reduction plan (NRP) that lays out measures intended to achieve this".

As for the initiative to improve the environmental management of the facilities of Spain's air navigation service provider, ENAIRE will continue to purchase 100% of its electricity from certified renewable sources, a measure that, since 2015, has saved over 110,000 tonnes of CO₂.  There is also a plan to install solar panels to supply electricity and foster the use of renewable energies.

The photovoltaic installations at the ENAIRE control centres in Seville and the Canary Islands are already in use, and work is underway on similar facilities in the Madrid Control Centre (start-up in 2024) and, sometime in 2025, the plant in the Barcelona Control Centre will go into operation.

As a whole, these photovoltaic installations will generate nearly 4 GWh annually, saving 18% of the electricity consumed in these facilities, and 13.7% of ENAIRE's total consumption.

Between now and 2028, the most significant investments in the field of energy efficiency that ENAIRE will make are:

- Over €3.5 million to renew its vehicle fleet.

- Almost 8 million euros to install photovoltaic plants and replace lighting in our facilities.

- Over 2 million euros to promote the use of wind power and implement hydrogen as an alternative fuel in our facilities.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for three years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 500 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.