airberlin celebrates environmental milestone: 10 years of winglets

airberlin is celebrating a special anniversary on May 25th: Ten years ago, on May 25th 2001, airberlin put the first Boeing 737-700 with factory installed “blended winglets“ into operation. Just a few weeks earlier on May 8th 2001, the airline had received its first Boeing with retrofitted winglets.

What a lot of passengers don’t know: The 2.40 metre tall extensions on the wing ends, the so-called winglets, are more than just a visual accessory. Because of their design, they have a positive effect on the aerodynamics at the wing ends and lower both the fuel consumption and the emissions. This is possible by reducing the tip vortexes, which occur on the upper and underneath side of the wing because of various pressure conditions. These vortexes consume energy and increase the air resistance, which in turn reduces the ascending force of the aircraft. Winglets create a type of barrier, thereby reducing these vortexes and decrease the induced air resistance. Because of the improved aerodynamic conditions at the wing, the aircraft’s fuel consumption drops by up to 3 percent net. At airberlin, a Boeing equipped with “Blended Winglets“ uses 270 tons less of kerosene per year. This equals annual CO2 savings of 850 tons per aircraft or the holding capacity of
O2 World in Berlin of 425,000 cubic centimetres.

In addition, winglets provide better performance when climbing. As a result of the shorter rolling distance and the steeper take-off angle, the noise level during take-off is reduced by up to 6.5 percent. Meanwhile, 90 percent of all Boeings have winglets. The entire Boeing fleet will fly with winglets by 2013, thereby ensuring even higher environmental efficiency.

Following the long tradition in the area of eco-efficient flying, airberlin has set itself the goal of becoming Europe’s most efficient airline in 2011 and to lower its average specific fuel consumption to a peak value of 3.5 litres/100 passenger kilometres. In the last year, this value was already at 3.6 litres/100 passenger kilometres, thereby making airberlin the most efficient German airline.