POLAR ROUTES Today, hundreds of flights operate As a general rule, cross-polar routes to Hong Kong and Beijing, Detroit to provide time and distance savings only each week over the interior of The more direct routing also provides Beijing and Shanghai, and on flights from to . OFFER NEW en route between and Asia. significant time and fuel savings. Flight to Delhi. On the return flight, the polar tracks Similarly, a large volume of traffic times are reduced by an hour or more, are less advantageous than conventional, Continued development. OPPORTUNITIES crosses the Atlantic north of and fuel requirements are reduced by more southerly routes, which typically Several challenges must be met before and the Circle on flights several thousand pounds. The savings Nonstop flights between North America benefit from strong tailwinds. the polar route system will be able to between Europe and the West Coast are even greater if a polar route elimi- and Asia via the , while The main cross-polar route, known accommodate the expected traffic of North America. nates the need for an intermediate stop. long recognized as advantageous, as Polar 1, generally offers efficient growth for these routes. Improvements Development of the new cross-polar The combined effect of these savings have only now become practical. routing from West Coast cities such as in communications and surveillance routes began in 1994 when the Russian is reduced operating costs, lower emis- Increased access to Russian airspace, Vancouver and to des- capabilities will increase the efficiency government initiated work with the sions levels, and more competitive fares the gradual liberalization of bilateral tinations on the Indian subcontinent. and capacity of the system. airlines and the international commu- for passengers. agreements, and growing demand for The other main cross-polar routes, The governments of Russia, , nity to establish a series of polar routes For example, a flight from New York international service to and from Polar 2, 3, and 4, generally are for Canada, and the are through its airspace. By mid-1998, the to Hong Kong via a conventional route China are among the factors that have four cross-polar routes were defined flights connecting cities in eastern and continuing to develop the polar route requires at least one intermediate stop central North America with destina- helped make the new routes viable. and made available for demonstration system through the ongoing activities for fuel. Given the conventional airways,tions in China and East Asia. Several Although the new cross-polar flights. The first official polar route of the Russian-American Coordinating nonstop service is impractical because interlinking airways among the four routes take international flights over flight by a commercial airline was Group for Air Traffic. Support from the circuitous routing results in flights major routes provide additional previously untraveled territory, com- conducted in July 1998. U.S. and Asian the airlines through the International of more than 7,900 nmi. With the new flexibility (fig. 1). mercial airlines have been flying in the airlines then conducted more than cross-polar routes, the Hong Kong Air Transport Association has been Current markets served by nonstop polar region north of the 650 demonstration flights under special flight can be flown nonstop because of very important and will continue to polar routes include New York and for more than 40 years. In 1954, arrangements with Russian authorities. more direct routing and reduced head- be critical to the future development Newark to Hong Kong, Chicago System (SAS) Today, airlines operate nonstop 747 winds in the polar region (fig. 1, p. 12, of the polar route system. inaugurated DC-6B service from and 777 service to destinations in Asia and fig. A). to Los Angeles via Sondre via the polar routes. Stromfjord. In 1957, SAS began polar service from Copenhagen to via Anchorage. From that time through the Benefits. A FULL-PASSENGER LOAD PLUS CARGO ON CROSS-POLAR ROUTES mid-1980s, flights through the polar The opening of the polar routes benefits FIGURE region increased as Anchorage became airlines and passengers in several ways. 777-200ER from New York to Hong Kong the primary stopping point for passenger The required flight distances from (85% winter winds) traffic between Europe and East Asia. North America to Asia are substantially 70 In 1983, inaugurated the first reduced, allowing new city pairs to be nonstop service from Europe to connected with direct service. As a 301 passengers by flying from north through result, airlines are able to bring even 60 Polar 1 Polar 2 Polar 3 Polar 4 275 the polar region and down the Bering better service to passengers by offering Strait to Tokyo. nonstop flying from North America to 254 more Asian destinations. 50 Payload, lb (000s) 215

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