Greening Aviation: One Step at a Time
The British Airways Central Analytics Team have helped the airline take great strides in reducing environmental impact through a series of initiatives. Here is an article I wrote discussing our work:
The British Airways vision is to lead the aviation industry in minimising environmental impacts, with a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2050.
The operational factors of an international airline that influence carbon emissions are complex and numerous. Many departments use their decades of operational experience daily to ensure aircraft fly as efficiently as possible whilst continuing to prioritise customer safety and travel experience.
Seats are sold, flight plans are created, fuel is allocated, and pilots review and adjust contingency fuel loading, all with the objective of safely completing each flight with the smallest possible environmental impact.
Data and analytics are essential to truly optimise such a complex operation. Over 9 months, 18 environmental initiatives have been spearheaded by the Analytics team, which (when fully implemented) will result in a reduction of 70,000 tonnes of CO2 (excluding COVID-19 effects).
There were two objectives of these initiatives. Firstly, to draw focus to environmental performance across the airline through clear and consistent reporting. This encouraged teams to ‘think carbon’ and has ultimately embedded a culture of many small and continual changes adding up to a big long-term environmental impact. Secondly, to use a data-led approach and cutting-edge data science techniques to identify and implement operational solutions to minimise carbon emissions at every opportunity.
To achieve the first objective and lay the foundations for measurable success, the team started by developing a tracking framework for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which consistently report tonnes of CO2 from fuel consumption across the BA network. These KPIs were developed and collaboratively signed off in conjunction with stakeholders across various teams.
KPIs are monitored through a Tableau dashboard that is accessible to all, giving a single version of the truth. Metrics are driven by robust data from a specially created carbon data layer, which drew together fuel and operational data from many complex sources across the airline. Data includes fuel loading data (combining fuel handler invoices with ‘live’ readings taken the aircraft), pilot fuel logs, feeds from the onboard flight computers, and messages received from the engines.
Additional contextual information is gathered to help quantify and explain things like take-off weights, aircraft trim levels, auxiliary power usage, flight times (to account for weather systems), and routes/waypoints (to account for distance travelled).
With the data and measurement framework in place, the analytics team were able to deliver swift successes towards the second objective of minimising operational emissions. Analysis of the data led to changes spanning many teams including operations planning, flight planning (pilots), ‘above-wing’ and ‘below-wing’ teams, finance, and customer product & proposition.
Three notable initiatives are outlined below.
Firstly, data was used to build a model that optimises loading of cargo to ensure weight is distributed evenly across an aircraft. This ensures optimal trim on long flights, reducing drag, increasing flying efficiency, and therefore reducing carbon emissions.
The second example was the development of an optimisation algorithm for contingency fuel. Contingency fuel is ‘additional’ fuel above the amount required to complete a journey. Pilots decide how much contingency fuel to load based on various factors including weather conditions, the route and destination, and historic fuel usage. Analysis of data found that in some cases the amount of contingency fuel far exceeded the amount required to complete a safe flight under any possible scenario or set of weather conditions. By presenting pilots with this information, in many cases it was possible to slightly reduce fuel carried whilst still guaranteeing a safe flight under all circumstances. This gave a ‘double environmental benefit’, because loading more fuel onto a plane increases the weight, which in turn decreases the efficiency of the fuel burned (for example, more fuel is required during take-off when the aircraft is heavier!).
The final example was a ‘weight audit’ of all items and equipment on each aircraft, aiming to reduce weight and therefore flying emissions. Outcomes of this initiative included the provision of digital magazines to customers (accessed via their own devices) and subsequent reduction of unnecessary duplicate printed material, as well as the removal of unused and heavy on-board kitchen equipment. Although many changes were small, the environmental benefits quickly accumulated when considered cumulatively and across many flights each month.
British Airways has embarked on an ambitious mission to become carbon neutral by 2050. Fundamental to this journey to date has been the use of data and analytics to drive efficiency increases and minimise CO2 emissions. The analytics team have led the creation of an environmental data layer, a robust reporting framework for CO2, and subsequent data-driven initiatives, and had some very promising early successes in measurably minimising environmental impact.
