SITA is first IT provider to sign up to aviation industry’s action on climate change

SITA, owned by the world’s major airlines, today became the first IT provider to the air transport industry to throw its weight publicly behind the Aviation Industry Commitment to Action on Climate Change.
Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, today signed the Commitment to Action on Climate Change at SITA’s Annual IT Summit, attended by leading figures from the air transport industry, and called for, “a revolution in how the air transport community works in order to achieve carbon neutral growth.”

He said: “Just as we made a great combined effort to become the first web-enabled global industry and to move towards eliminating paper for passengers and cargo, so the air transport community now is coming together to have a meaningful impact on climate change.

“Governments, airlines, airports, air traffic management and IT providers must unite to make the quantum leap required for an immediate 12% reduction in carbon emissions through eliminating airspace and airport inefficiencies. Smart investments in new aircraft and optimised route management will help achieve this realisable goal. Flight operations and better cooperation between all the stakeholders, through Collaborative Decision Making systems, will be key to this effort. “

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA CEO and Director General, said: “Aviation is responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions. Our goal is to keep the enormous economic benefits of aviation while eliminating the climate change impacts. IATA’s vision for carbon neutral growth leading to a carbon-free future sets the benchmark for other industries to follow. To be successful, all the industry partners must be on board.

“IATA’s four pillar strategy—invest in technology, fly planes effectively, build efficient infrastructure and implement positive economic measures—is now an industry commitment. Technology is the first of the pillars. I welcome SITA to the industry-wide team. IT is critical to the further optimisation of fuel efficiency by improving air traffic management, flight turnaround times and route planning.”

Violante also drew attention to SITA’s own initiative to provide IT services that are ‘green by design’. As a first step, SITA, which relies on massive data centres for its daily operations, will be reducing the numbers of servers it uses from 2,000 to 600, saving one megawatt of power annually, offsetting more than 33 million pounds of carbon dioxide over the next 30 years.

The Aviation Industry Commitment to Action on Climate Change was agreed in April 2008 at the 3rd Aviation and Environment Summit and supports the four pillar strategy of IATA and the International Civil Aviation Organization to combat climate change through new technology, fuel optimisation, improved air traffic management and cost-effective economic measures.