Opportunistic commercial formation flights in continental airspace for greener aviation
Bracons Escarre, Oriol
Verdonk Gallego, Christian Eduardo
Piera, Miquel Àngel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Enginyeria de Sistemes i Telecomunicacions)

Date:	2026
Abstract:	At a time of growing demand in commercial aviation, it is important to establish a trade-off between environmental impact, efficiency, and capacity. This is assessed through the study of Air Streams under a multi-criteria approach that pave the way for the deployment of commercial Formation Flights in continental airspace. This study describes a methodology to design Air Streams that could foster an efficient opportunistic Formation Flights pairing among aircraft. An evaluation of the main traffic flows that make up European airspace is conducted, followed by the design of two Air Streams. An study of potential use and savings is carried out, to evaluate Air Streams and Formation Flights synergy. The results of the heuristics applied show that Air Stream could manage around 10% of the aircraft flying in the airstream nearby area implementing Formation Flights. Significant savings could be achieved by the combination of Air Streams and Formation Flights concepts. The study estimates over 1600 tonnes of Fuel and over 5000 tonnes of CO2 savings annually, only with the use case scenario evaluated.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Formation flights ; Air Streams ; Traffic complexity ; Air traffic management ; Fuel savings
Published in:	Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Vol. 36 (March 2026) , art. 101818, ISSN 2590-1982

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2025.101818

14 p, 4.6 MB

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