March 19, 2012 - Airbus will underline its commitment towards sustainable aviation growth at the sixth Aviation and Environment Summit organized by the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) in Geneva, next week (21-22 March).

As a leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus is in pursuit of the perfect flight and believes that its scale-up can start today to shrink the environmental footprint of an aircraft?s flight to a minimum.  

This can be achieved through the combination of all best practices currently available such as operating the most eco-efficient aircraft, using sustainable alternative fuels and implementing a truly streamlined Air Traffic Management (ATM) system.

?The aviation industry is in a strong position to reduce emissions and perform a ?perfect flight?,? said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO. ?What we need is a clear endorsement by governments and aviation stakeholders in allocating proper resources to venture beyond today?s limitations.  

?I consider a Single European Sky with a 10 % CO2 saving-potential as a low hanging fruit.? Tom Enders added: ?Our industry is right on track and is playing its part. In the last decade, we saw a traffic increase of 45 percent but only a fuel increase by three percent.? Last year Airbus and Air France performed a ?perfect flight?, where all the above mentioned levers where pulled together on a regular A321 commercial flight from Toulouse to Paris. This flight cut CO2 emissions by half. 

Looking at recent achievements Airbus has launched a ?Biofuel Flightpath? together with the European Commission, several European airlines and also biofuel producers. This initiative has clear milestones targeting an annual production of two million tones of sustainably produced biofuel for aviation by 2020. In this context Airbus has announced two more European alternative fuel value chain projects in 2011. 

More than 90 percent of Airbus Research & Technology investments are of benefit for the environment. Airbus is fully committed to meet the global aviation industry targets: improving fuel efficiency by 1.5 % on average per year to 2020, to cap net carbon emissions from 2020, and work towards the ambitious goal of a 50 % reduction by 2050? compared to 2005 levels.