New EASA Fuel/Energy Schemes - What About Flight Operations Officers & Flight Dispatchers Training?

EASA recognizes that the fuel planning requirements set years ago became too conservative with the recent technological improvements such as aircraft and engine reliability,?information on actual aircraft fuel consumption, airspace and traffic, and weather information accuracy.

This conservative method has catered for unforeseen factors such as deviations from the expected fuel consumption data, forecast meteorological conditions, and planned routings and/or cruising levels/altitudes that influence the fuel consumption to the destination airport (compensated for by the contingency fuel).

However, the carriage of this extra fuel adds weight to the aircraft, increasing the fuel consumption and total emissions from the flight.

On the 30th of October 2022, EASA will introduce a NEW FUEL/ENERGY Scheme allowing air operators to reduce the amount of fuel carried during operations, lowering fuel loads and consequently burning less fuel and reducing the CO2 emissions for an overall flight and environmental impact of the flight.

As each air operator has?diverse needs and available resources,?EASA has established different fuel schemes:

• Basic fuel/Energy scheme - Mandatory: Standard 5% contingency fuel, at least one nominated alternate, 30 minutes of final reserve fuel/energy, and NO fuel monitoring program required.
• Basic Fuel/Energy scheme with Variations - Voluntary: 3% contingency fuel, Statistical Contingency Fuel options under EASA fuel planning, and the Reduced Contingency Fuel (RCF). Fuel consumption monitoring program required. Flight monitoring and flight watch as essential tasks. Flight Planning and fuel/energy planning policy must be integrated with aerodrome selection and the in-flight fuel management policy.
• Individual fuel/Energy scheme - Voluntary: In addition to the Basic Fuel/Energy scheme with Variations needs, Air Operators must meet a string of requirements and need to focus on Safety Performance Management and the associated Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs)

While more fuel planning flexibility is given to air operators through introducing the 'fuel schemes' concept, air operators need to fulfill specific criteria and demonstrate the implementation of procedures, enhanced data-gathering, risk assessment, decision-making, and?TRAINING OF THE OPERATIONAL CONTROL personnel.

Do air operators need to train their operational personnel, Flight Operations Officers, and Flight Dispatchers?

It is not required with the Basic Fuel/Energy scheme, but YES, it is necessary with 'Basic with Variations' and the other 'Individual' Fuel/Energy schemes.

According to EASA AMC1 ORO.GEN.110(c) Flight Operations Officers and Flight Dispatchers need the following:

1. An adequate training program for Operational Control Personnel for flight monitoring or flight watch
2. An Initial Training
3. Operator-specific Training (OJT)
4. Recurrent Training (every 36 months)
5. Retaining knowledge, skills, and qualifications for instructors of operational control personnel

So why train your FOO/FD personnel if the Basic Fuel/Energy Scheme does not require it?

Well, let us take a look at these two "simple" flight/fuel calculations:

Example 1 - Long Haul Operations - A330-300 FRA-JFK / ZFW 159000kg

Fuel in Kilos??????????????????????Assumed Fuel price 1.30 USD/Kg

Let us assume that you have 10 flights a day / 360 days per year on average.

3% contingency fuel SAVINGS:

• COSTS: 409 USD x 10 flights x 360 days = 1,472,400 USD per Year
• CO2: ????995.4 kg x 10 flights x 360 days = 3,583,440 kg?per Year

RCF planning or Statistical Contingency Fuel SAVING:???????????????????

• ?COSTS: 647 USD x 10 flights x 360 days = 2,329,200 USD per Year
• CO2: ????1,573.68 kg x 10 flights x 360 days = 5,665,248 kg?per Year

Example 2 - Medium Haul Operations – B737-800 CPH-TFS / ZFW 58000kg

Fuel in Kilos??????????????????????Assumed Fuel price 1.38 USD/Kg

Let us assume that you have 6000 similar flights per year on average.

3% contingency fuel SAVINGS:

• COSTS: 40 USD x 6000 flights = 240,000 USD per Year
• CO2: ????91.64 kg x 6000 flights = 549,840 kg?per Year

RCF planning or Statistical Contingency Fuel SAVING:???????????????????

• ?COSTS: 64 USD x 6000 flights = 384,000 USD per Year
• CO2: ????202.24 kg x 6000 flights = 1,213,440 kg?per Year

And the Individual Fuel/Energy Scheme allows for the reduction of further fuel consumption and CO2 emissions!

CONCLUSION:

This is a no-brainer; there are real environmental and financial gains to training your operations control personnel - Flight Operations Officers and Flight Dispatchers.

"The Operational Control Teams are vital personnel that will contribute actively to enhancing flight operations by giving more flexibility and efficiency while maintaining high safety levels with the introduction of the NEW EASA "fuel/energy schemes" concept in our organization."

So, DO NOT WAIT!

Visit our website www.theifoa.com and contact us at [email protected] to get a (more than) competitive offer for your operational control personnel's world-class Initial, Customized Recurrent and Advanced Training or specific Training on the implementation of the new EASA requirements starting the 30th of October 2022.