ANA is a public service entity in Luxembourg providing air navigation, aerodrome, aeronautical, meteorological and technical infrastructure services to all air and ground traffic at Luxembourg airport. As a public service organisation, ANA operates under the mandate of the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works. It is supervised by the Directorate of Civil Aviation in accordance with applicable EU Regulations and international civil aviation organisation standards (ICAO) as a certified Air Navigation Service Provider. The certificate is granted after internal and external audits and includes the entire range of requirements primarily concerning the safety of air navigation. It also covers organisational structure, performance management in service provision, operational capabilities, quality, risk and security management.
The applicable requirements and performance areas are grouped in five key performance areas (KPAs): safety, capacity, cost-efficiency, environment and security. These have to conform to set (and monitored) EU-wide and local key performance indicators (KPIs), and quantitative and qualitative targets. For this project, the KPA on environment and respective KPIs and targets are relevant.
The main starting points for ANA for commencing the development and implementing environmental measures – in the meantime grown into a full programme – were twofold. The first impetus was to conform to legal requirements and create awareness internally for environmental issues, saving costly natural resources and energy. The second and more lasting boost came in 2014 when air traffic had already started to increase beyond the forecast. Cargo traffic quickly resumed to former levels, raising night flight exemptions, and the density of movements on the airport became an issue in operations and for the neighbouring communities and its residents.
Dealing with ‘simple’ residents’ complaints was the usual practice that ANA (and the Ministry) had to respond to before. However, with the increase in traffic movements and density of take-offs and landings this soon transformed into a negative mood, stiffening relations with some formal and firm actions from the side of residents going public and raising alarms. It became clear: a more profound, lasting (sustainable), and broad action in response to the situation was inevitable.
ANA has been developed and operated since 2014; an elaborated performance management system in all service areas. In the meantime, the system has been developed and now includes specific KPIs and performance indicators of the Environment Management System (EMS). The EMS scheme is operated with dedicated resources, manages agreed activities on its own and is involved in all projects.
ANA also adopted measures and standards to help the enhancement of the system to higher levels, also in environmental aspects. Since 2009 ANA has been certified according to ISO9001 service standards and in 2017 it was certified according to ISO14001 environmental standards. As part of the latter, ANA performed an environment risk and opportunities analysis of its projects and activities. The outcome was transposed into the KPI/PI scheme and environment strategy with six risk areas: noise, air quality (emission of noxious gases), water and ground quality, waste, biodiversity and use of natural resources. In 2014 ANA won the Luxembourg award for quality and excellence.
In 2018 the Ministry asked ANA to also participate in the community eco-management and audit scheme EMAS. The scheme’s main objective to which ANA subscribes is: ‘to promote continuous improvements in the environmental performance of organisations by the establishment and implementation of an environmental management system, the evaluation of the performance of such a system, the provision of information on environmental performance, an open dialogue with the public and other interested parties and the active involvement of employees.’
This report concentrates on projects and other efforts of ANA to manage and improve the environmental impact of ground and air movements of aircraft near the aerodrome. This is considered in terms of avoiding and reducing noise and emissions, and involving the public (i.e. affected residents) and airport partners in a common approach. Meanwhile, the developed measures of this inclusive approach include all ANA personnel, the airport operator and airlines, residents living in the vicinity affected by the operations and the Ministry, which fully supports the approach and projects.
The report will also include other measures that ANA has started since 2015 to reduce energy, material consumption and CO2 emissions, and using environmentally friendly means and procedures in its operation. It also describes the objectives and goals pursued, the actions taken, the means and procedures implemented, and to what effect.