“Green” taxiing on major airports

Aircraft use a non negligible quantity of fuel for taxiing, especially if they are short or medium haul airplanes operating on large airports requiring long taxiing distances. The fuel burnt while taxiing leads to the emission of two types of pollutants, those which have a local impact (SO2, NOx, CO, unburnt hydrocarbons, particulate matter) and those which have a global impact (CO2, H2O).

The French Civil Aviation Technical Center has led several studies in order to evaluate the impact on a large airport’s traffic management in case of the introduction of aircraft equipped with slower environment friendly taxi systems amongst regular and faster aircraft.