A CO2 versus noise trade-off study for the evaluation of current air traffic departure procedures

Paper in proceeding, 2011

This paper considers, for the first time, the environmental effects of Air Traffic Management speed constraints during the departure phase of flight. We present a CO2 versus noise trade-off study that compares aircraft departures subject to speed constraints with a Free Speed scenario. A departure route at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport in Sweden is used as a case study and the analysis is based on airline flight recorded data extracted from the Airbus A321 aircraft. Results suggest that CO2 emissions could be reduced by 180 kg per flight for a high-density configuration A321 operating in the upper region of the maximum operational take-off mass if departure speed constraints were removed. This decrease in CO2 emissions is countered by an increase in the maximum A-weighted noise exposure below 70 dB(A). The relevance of these speed constraints is discussed and potential solutions for removing them are presented.