"Push to make O'Hare environmentally friendly"

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Green call tugs at O'Hare
Virgin Atlantic chief promotes his plan to reduce carbon dioxide
By Julie Johnsson and Gary Washburn
The Chicago (IL) Tribune


As he moves to resume lucrative daily flights by Virgin Atlantic Airways
between Chicago and London, Richard Branson is pressing City of Chicago
officials to adopt one of his pet environmental causes: reducing carbon
dioxide spewed by airplanes.

Branson claims his plan would reduce global aircraft emissions significantly
and save on jet fuel costs by rethinking how airports and air traffic
controllers manage aircraft on the ground.

He wants O'Hare International and other airports to use electric tugs to tow
aircraft from their gates to a parking bay near the runways they use for
taking off, a measure Branson said would cut aircraft emissions by 18
percent.

"We will be experimenting with it in a few weeks time at [London's] Heathrow
and Gatwick Airports," Branson said in an interview. "Hopefully, we can make
Chicago the next airport in the world" to try the measure.

Branson said he broached the measure with Mayor Richard Daley on Monday.
"He's intrigued," he added.

Daley told reporters at a news conference that the city "definitely" will
investigate the concept.

"We are looking at it," he said. "We have to sit down with our commissioner
... and we have to talk to the [Federal Aviation Administration]." Whether
it would slow airport operations "is what you really have to look at."

Skeptics say that towing all of the 1,150 or so airplanes that fly out of
O'Hare each day to their respective runways would lead to an operations
meltdown, since tow speeds tend to lag the speeds at which planes typically
taxi around the airport.

"Tows tend to be very slow, which is just going to create gridlock along the
taxiways around the terminal," said Robert Mann, industry analyst and
president of R.W. Mann and Co., a consulting firm based in Port Washington,
N.Y. "This is just a non-starter."

However, the idea merits study, said Howard Learner, executive director of
the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

"Mayor Daley aspires for Chicago to be the greenest city in America,"
Learner said. "If that's to be achieved, then O'Hare should be the greenest
airport in America."

Mayor favors alternative fuels

Daley, a proponent of rooftop gardens and green technology, said he also
would like to explore boosting the use of alternate fuels by vehicles at the
airport, including buses and cabs that shuttle passengers to and from
hotels.

Aviation Commissioner Nuria Fernandez expressed interest in anything that
could improve environmental conditions around O'Hare but said the first she
had heard of the airplane-towing concept was from Branson earlier in the
day.

"It's a test that hasn't even started yet at Gatwick and Heathrow,"
Fernandez said. "We are the busiest airport in the world. We want to make
sure it does not affect operations, that we can deliver service ... and
determine if it is something the federal government and the airlines would
be interested in."

Spokeswomen for United Airlines and American Airlines, the airport's two
largest tenants, said they didn't have sufficient information to comment on
Branson's proposal.

However, they and most planes at O'Hare already use a single engine to taxi
to and from runways, which reduces emissions as well as fuel costs, said
Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Aviation.

The airport tugs that will be used in England are the same tractor-like
machines at O'Hare that pull jets away from the gate as they prepare to
depart and that ferry them to and from hangars.

Currently, pilots power up engines in the gate area before departing and
propel the jets at low speed down taxiways to runways for takeoff.

Not powering up engines "for 10, 15, 20 minutes ... is saving on fuel and
emissions," said Chris Rossi, North American vice president of sales and
marketing for Virgin Atlantic.

Branson said that a plane's emissions at an airport would be reduced by
about 18 percent by using tugs and starting engines only "eight minutes or
so" before takeoff.

Branson said the idea came from a conversation with a Virgin Atlantic pilot
about the long, fuel-eating delays on the runways at New York's Kennedy
International Airport.

"He said there is no need for that. You could just have a small tug take the
plane there. It was as simple as that," Branson said.

"It was something people should have thought of before. The airline industry
has cost itself hundreds and hundreds of millions by not doing it, the
environment has been damaged, and we at Virgin are out asking questions."

Changes sought in Europe

Virgin Atlantic also is studying speeding aircraft descent on landings and
advocating for improved air traffic control in Europe to cut emissions and
boost fuel savings.

"There are 35 different air traffic controls in Europe, and they don't put
you in a straight line," Branson said. "They put you all over Europe."

Implementation of all three ideas could save 25 percent of total carbon
dioxide emissions by the industry "and save a lot of money" as well, he
said.

But some question whether Branson's carbon emissions stance is motivated
more by public relations than altruism.

"That's just grandstanding," said Michael Boyd, president of The Boyd Group,
an aviation consulting firm based in Evergreen, Colo. "As I understand it,
airlines produce something like 2 percent of the world's carbon emissions.
If he were so concerned, he'd be speaking about [pollution in] China or
India."


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