As reported in the media, COVID-19 has had a huge impact on global transportation, with EU passenger numbers down by 90% in April to June 2020 compared with 2019 figures. This has meant many airlines are reporting large numbers of job losses and some airlines across the world collapsing. The means that cost saving is even more critical to airlines than previously and they are looking to reduce fuel consumption as a means of achieving this.

A major producer of carbon emissions, and consequently a contributor to climate change, is global transportation. Encouraged by government legislation and customer pressure, the global aviation sector continues to seek methods to reduce the amount of carbon generated by the industry. Dirt deposits on aircraft exterior surfaces can reduce the ease with which an aircraft can fly through the air and, consequently, increase the amount of fuel the aircraft burns. This may only amount to a few percent, but across multiple aircraft over an extended period the increase in greenhouses gases emitted is significant and the additional costs for an airline can be extremely large.

Working with the airline industry, Intercede Ventures Ltd (IVL), supported by a subcontractor, the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE), have invented a new system to help airlines to reduce expenditure associated with fuel consumption due to dirt deposits, and consequently, additionally, enhance an airlines 'eco-credentials'. IVL's Aircraft Surface Management (IASM) system provides a complete solution for airlines to facilitate management of the cleaning of their aircraft. It includes a novel analyser to measure dirt deposits on an aircraft's surface (for ease and safety the measurement is performed from the ground, shining optical beams at the surface to be measured), together with software to calculate a cost associated with the fuel consumption related to the measured dirt deposits, in order to determine if cleaning is required. It will also be validated to evidence the reduced carbon footprints for aircraft using the system, which represents vitally important data for airlines in relation new requirements which come in to force in 2020\.

In this project, the surface analyser instrument will be developed and tested on aircraft structures. In addition, algorithms and associated software will be developed to analyse data from the new instrument to indicate when an aircraft should be cleaned. Finally, trials will be performed on working aircraft over a period of 2 months. The trial performed in this project will verify the ability of the IASM service to reduce fuel consumption relative to current standard industry approach, by tailoring cleaning for each aircraft within an airline's fleet.