Planes should fly slower to reduce emissions, new study says

Reducing plane speeds by 15 per cent would mean less fuel is burned by the flight

(Getty Images)

Planes should increase their flight time and fly slower to reduce emissions, a new study on aviation has suggested.

A new analysis carried out by the University of Cambridge has set out a series of sustainable goals for the aviation industry to try to reduce their impact on climate change and make achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 more realistic.

The study found that aviation currently contributes to global warming rate increases by about four per cent, with 2.5 per cent of that being solely from global CO2 emissions.

Under current industry standards, the university believes aviation is still seriously off-track in meeting net-zero aviation pledges by 2050 by governments and organisations across the globe.

The analysis set out four realistic goals to achieve by 2030 to make the 2050 pledge easier to attain, including further research into avoiding clouds (contrails) created by planes, better collaborations between governments and industry, the creation of more sustainable fuel and experimenting with new technologies.

The university has also suggested a “bold measure” to try and reduce fuel burning by extending flight times while flying a little slower than usual routes.

Reducing flight speed by around 15 per cent, the study suggests, would decrease fuel burn by five to seven per cent. Planes may have to be designed in the future to fly at slower speeds to make this change attainable.

The downside of this would fall on the passengers, as their journey on a transatlantic flight would increase by about 50 minutes, potentially having a negative impact on airline productivity and passengers willing to book onto even longer flights.

Read more: How the climate crisis is making turbulence worse and flying more dangerous

However, the report suggests that the increased flight time could be offset by better airport organisation, such as reduced waiting times.

While such changes would require system-wide shifts, the move could see up to a 50 per cent reduction in fuel burn by 2050.

Other “bold measures” included building new aircraft quicker so older planes can be retired, and making sure more aircraft are “matching range”, which would ensure carriers are used for flights they were designed to fly for.

Professor Rob Miller, director of the university’s Whittle Laboratory, said that the reason the bold measures are not currently being implemented is because they require a “whole systems process change”.

“The airlines can’t do them alone, nor can the manufacturers or the airports,” he told The Times. “It’s not that anyone doesn’t want to, it’s just that the complexity of the system makes it very hard to do.”

The university’s report will be presented to industry leaders this week in New York City.

“Aviation stands at a pivotal moment, much like the automotive industry in the late 2000s,” Miller said in the University of Cambridge‘s report announcement.

“Back then, discussions centred around biofuels as the replacement for petrol and diesel – until Tesla revolutionised the future with electric vehicles.

“Our five-year plan is designed to accelerate this decision point in aviation, setting it on a path to achieve net zero by 2050.”

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