Air France helps to develop the electric green taxiing system

Since mid-June, Air France has been partnering Safran and Honeywell in the development the Electric Green Taxiing System. This system aims to significantly reduce the use of engines and the use of vehicles for the movement of aircraft on the ground.

The EGTS system allows aircraft to move on the taxiway without using the main engines, instead using the APU* to power the electric engines housed in the wheels.

This represents considerable economic savings while at the same time reducing gas and noise emissions. In this way, during this phase, a small aircraft equipped with the EGTS system reduces its nitrogen emissions by about 50% and carbon emissions by 75%.This partnership enables Air France to analyze the financial and operational technical advantages of EGTS, and helps Honeywell and Safran to better assess the potential savings and other operational and environmental benefits. The two companies plan to deploy the system on new aircraft as from 2016.

Air France has been taking considerable initiatives in recent years to reduce its environmental impact, with the objective of neutral growth in CO2 emissions as from 2020. Air France is also involved in research on sustainable biofuels. It is also continuing the integration of sustainable development in its products and services by recycling an average of 80% of the articles used for service on board.