Start-up hopes efficiency can save U.S. airlines

By Anupreeta Das

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29 (Reuters) - With some airlines even charging for peanuts to offset sharply higher fuel prices, a Seattle-based company wants to rescue struggling carriers by lowering jet fuel costs through more efficient landings.

"We're out to save 10 percent of the world's jet fuel," said Dan Gerrity, CEO and co-founder of Naverus Inc.

The savings come from a navigation system called Required Navigation Performance (RNP), which reduces fuel usage by lopping several nautical miles off the end of a flight. It uses global-positioning satellites and on-board computers to guide planes on autopilot along precisely plotted, imaginary highways toward a runway -- a job traditionally done by pilots looking out their windshields and air traffic controllers.

Computers take into account airport features, the surrounding terrain and the density of air traffic to calculate the shortest and safest landing route. The more direct route also shrinks the airspace a plane requires when landing, thus making room for more planes in the sky.

Alaska Airlines first developed RNP procedures in the 1990s to help navigate planes across difficult terrain. Naverus co-founder and former Alaska Airlines pilot Steve Fulton was part of the team that used this advanced procedure.

Although RNP was created to promote efficiency, Naverus has recently changed its sales pitch to highlight that cutting distance by as many as 20 miles can save a lot of fuel.

"Saving money is sexy, efficiency is not," said Steve Vassallo, a partner at Foundation Capital, a Silicon Valley company that recently led a $10 million round of financing for Naverus.

A March study by Airservices Australia found RNP approaches saved 200,000 kilograms of fuel at one airport last year, a total saving of about 10 percent on fuel.