Optimized descent brings fuel use down to earth

Aviation: Sea-Tac testing new landing method better for environment

Lui Kit Wong The News Tribune

Alaska Airlines pilot Mike Adams explains landing procedure called “Greener Skies Over Seattle” in a flight simulator at the Alaska Air Flight Training Center in SeaTac. The new landing procedure can save about a 55-gallon barrel of jet fuel per landing.

JOHN GILLIE; The News Tribune

Published: 08/30/09 12:05 am | Updated: 08/30/09 12:34 pm

Long after dark one night last week when few planes were in the air, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 descended toward Seattle-Tacoma International Airport its engines at idle power. Aboard were Alaska pilots and technicians and officials from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The occasion was the latest test of an experimental landing procedure at the airport that promises to save millions of gallons of fuel, lessen residents’ exposure to jet noise, cut pollution and save airlines’ precious dollars.

The new procedure, dubbed Optimized Profile Descent by the airline industry and its regulators, is a measure that uses high technology satellite-guided navigation, the power of computerized aircraft flight management computers with the oversight of the FAA to change the decades-old procedures for bringing aircraft from cruising altitude to a landing on the runway.