New A380 procedure at Heathrow to reduce emissions

Airbus said this week it had partnered with Heathrow, Singapore Airlines and NATS to launch an improved departure procedure for SIA's Airbus A380 to save fuel.

The companies worked together over the last year to develop the new airline procedure, which has been put into place immediately.

It allows the carrier's A380 to use less power when taking off from Heathrow and use flexible acceleration of up to 4000 feet when it's at a height of 1,500 feet.

Airbus said it would help SIA save an additional 300kg of fuel per flight, equating to one metric tonne of emissions of CO2 on a flight to Singapore, as well as reducing NOx emissions.

The aircraft also remains within the airport's strict noise procedures as it produces half the noise energy at takeoff and cuts the area exposed to equivalent noise levels around the airport runway by half.

"Our cooperation with Heathrow, NATS and Airbus goes to show what can be achieved when stakeholders share the same goal of reducing carbon emissions and fuel burn" said SIA Senior Vice President Flight Operations Captain Gerard Yeap.