Project CARING (Contribution of Airlines for the Reduction of Industry Nuisances and Gases) aimed at better understanding how airlines deal with the environmental constraints, currently and in the future. CARING pursued three main objectives in line with Clean Sky’s Systems for Green Operations ITD:

• Gather trajectory data from actual flights. These trajectory data were used in Clean Sky’s simulator to evaluate their environmental impact and will be compared with future optimal trajectories permitted by the progress of the Clean Sky programme.
• Understand the current and future environmental constraints and the basis for taxations, emission permits, etc.
• Model how airlines dealt with the environmental constraints, and how it affects their economics, their operations and their strategy.

To be comprehensive, the CARING study covered several models of airlines: regional, low-cost, charter and long-haul. For trajectory data, environmental specialists worked with airlines to record FDR data on a variety of routes (congested airports, secondary airports, medium haul, long haul), aircrafts (turboprops, single aisles, long range) and approaches (regular, CDA) that are relevant for an environmental study. Trajectory data was then analysed and synthesised for use within the Clean Sky simulator. For environmental constraints, the consortium conducted a survey of existing and potential future international rules. At last, an economic modelling was developed based on the previous surveys and an analysis of the other costs within an airline (crew, delays, missed connections, etc.). This economic business model helped understand how the environmental constraints might affect future airline strategies, fleet and network decisions. The consortium involved 9 airlines as well as airline environmental specialists, airline operations & costs specialists and air transport economists.