Southwest Airlines decided to take a more sustainable approach to being green on St. Patrick’s day. They reached a step to their goal to fly Required Navigational Performance (RNP) procedures to and from all airports. Southwest Airlines flew its’ first RNP procedure plane from Dallas’ Love Field to Houston Hobby.
RNP procedures cause a plane’s flight to be more concise than a normal flight and this reduces the amount of time the plane is in the air. “RNP allows aircraft to fly more precise, direct, and accurate paths, reducing emissions and saving on fuel,” said Southwest Airlines‘ Executive VP and COO Mike Van de Ven. According to Southwest, the outcome data of this first RNP procedure flight from Dallas to Houston is as following:
- Estimated reduction of 904 lbs of Carbon Dioxide per roundtrip flight
- One year of flying RNP procedures could equal a reduction of 8,420,000 lbs of Carbon Dioxide. (Which is the same as taking 699 passenger cars off the road for one year)
- 8% in fuel savings which is around 43 gallons of fuel per roundtrip flight
- 400,000 gallons of fuel savings over one year
Wow. It is amazing the massive reduction from a more precise flight using RNP procedures. RNP is a type of satellite navigation and it brings together GPS accuracy with advanced aircraft avionics and new flight procedures. Can you imagine the impact if all Southwest planes flew with RNP procedures? How about all the planes in the world? Flying is never green but we are happy to hear that Southwest Airlines is making a real difference to decrease their impact on the environment with the RNP procedures.
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