I gåseformasjon over atlanteren

 

Airbus and partners complete successful wake energy retrieval trials Toulouse, France - 11 December 2025 – Airbus in partnership with Air France, Delta Air Lines, French bee, and Virgin Atlantic, and operations partners, AirNav Ireland, DSNA, EUROCONTROL and NATS, has successfully completed a new phase of trials for Airbus’ fello’fly project. Fello’fly takes inspiration from migrating geese and showcases the power of collaboration by pairing flights to reduce fuel consumption. With this flying technique, the first aircraft creates an uplift that drives fuel efficiency for the following aircraft, called ‘wake energy retrieval’. Once operational, wake energy retrieval has the potential to make fuel savings of up to 5% on long-haul flights. These trials, eight flights over the North Atlantic Sea between September and October 2025, conducted in the frame of the SESAR Joint Undertaking GEESE project, aimed to show that the operational concept is a feasible and safe method to guide two aircraft to meet at a precise time and place (rendezvous process), while maintaining full vertical separation and remaining compliant with air traffic regulations. While the actual wake energy retrieval flights have not been tested yet on commercial flights, the successful completion of the rendezvous process is a crucial first step toward future efficiency gains.  Each trial required close coordination between the two airlines’ ground operational control centers, four air traffic control centers, and two flight crews. The active participation of AirNav Ireland, Air France, Delta Air Lines, DSNA, EUROCONTROL Network Manager, French bee, NATS, and Virgin Atlantic, using the EUROCONTROL Innovation hub interface, was key to proving the concept’s safety and practicality in real-world conditions. Note to editors Launched in 2019, fello’fly is a project inspired by nature (biomimicry). In 2023, the GEESE project, funded by SESAR’s Digital European Sky programme, was launched to support collaboration and testing in air traffic management. Additional project partners include Bulatsa, Indra, ENAC, CIRA, Boeing, Frequentis, UAB, Oro Navigacija, DLR, UCLouvain, and WaPT. Click  here for more information about fello’fly and GEESE projects. In 2025, the completed trials successfully validated a rigorous four-step process designed to manage the high-precision maneuvers required. This process begins when the Airbus Pairing Assistance Tool (PAT) computes the new aircraft trajectories and shared rendezvous instructions in real-time. Next, the airlines' dispatcher, flight crew, and Air Traffic Control (ATC) assess the new trajectories to ensure operational acceptability. The EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub interface allows all stakeholders to have visibility of the decision status at any given moment. The third step involves one of the participating flights changing its planned route to join the other. Finally, both flight crews activate a cockpit function, committing the aircraft to arrive at the meeting point at an exact, predetermined time. @AirFrance @DeltaAirlines @Frenchbee @VirginAtlantic #Innovation

 

 

Illustration of real-time tracking and pairing management of flights (c) @Flightradar24