Our regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, has set a challenging target for our airspace efficiency in 2020, with a target 3Di value of 27.8. With air traffic movements in UK airspace dramatically reduced as a result of the impact of covid-19 the 3Di scores for April to June were a good deal lower, in the range 15-17.5 points. This is because during periods of low traffic levels, air traffic controllers have the opportunity to provide more optimum routings, smoother climbs and descents, reducing fuel burn, CO2 emissions and our 3Di scores.
The NATS 3Di score at the end of the second quarter of 2020 was 25.6 making our performance 2.2 points ahead of our regulatory target.
We recognise that as an industry we absolutely have to ‘build back better’. The Government is clear on environmental priorities and that the aviation industry has to start doing things differently. We are working to understand how we can build the airspace efficiency improvements we’re seeing now safely into the air traffic system as traffic returns. We continue to identify and target improvement in 3Di hotspots across the network.
We are improving the accessibility of 3Di performance reporting data for our air traffic control employees to enable them to manage airspace more efficiently, day-to-day. In addition to this we are regularly briefing our operational staff on the best ways to safely improve the flight profiles of the aircraft they control and in doing so, realise emissions reductions.
These initiatives are on top of our ongoing focus on airspace and procedural changes to reduce CO2 emissions