fellofly
PR:
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.
Airbus launched the project in 2019, named fello’fly, and was 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.
Here’s a video showing how two flights tracked each other across the North Atlantic from Europe to the US.
Then, in 2025, the trials were completed, validating a rigorous four-step process for managing 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 airline dispatcher, flight crew, and 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.
Notes:
Airbus claims that results show that CO2 emissions were reduced by 6 tonnes, confirming the potential for up to 5% fuel savings on long-haul flights.
On average, you’re looking at 500-600 transatlantic flights per day between the EU and the US (counting both directions), with peak days reaching over 600 daily departures. The volume has grown substantially over the past decade, with the transatlantic route among the first long-haul markets to recover after the pandemic fully.
Both the A350 and 777 burn between 50 and 65 tons of fuel per transatlantic flight. Modern twin-engine aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 typically use 20-30% less fuel for the same route. Given the fleet mix on transatlantic routes, a reasonable average would be around 60-80 tons (or 20,000-25,000 gallons) of jet fuel per transatlantic flight.
Daily, the fello’fly, if implemented, could save 1,800 tons of fuel. That is equivalent to three fuel-free flights every day. That is a big deal.
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