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Airbus and Partners Complete Pioneering Wake Energy Retrieval Trials

Airbus, along 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 their fello’fly project.


Illustration of Real-time Tracking and Pairing Management of Flights © Flightradar24 – Courtesy Airbus
Illustration of Real-time Tracking and Pairing Management of Flights © Flightradar24 – Courtesy Airbus

On Thursday (December 11, 2025), Airbus announced that in partnership with Air France, Delta Air Lines, French bee, and Virgin Atlantic, and operations partners, AirNav Ireland, DSNA, EUROCONTROL and NATS, they have successfully completed a new phase of trials for the fello’fly project.  Taking inspiration from migrating geese, fello’fly 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 deliver fuel savings of up to 5.0 percent on long-haul flights.


During the trials, eight flights over the North Atlantic Ocean took place between September and October 2025, and were conducted in the frame of the SESAR Joint Undertaking GEESE project, with the goal of showing that the operational concept is a feasible and safe method to guide two aircraft to meet at a precise time and place, while maintaining full vertical separation and remaining compliant with air traffic regulations.  Although 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.


The 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, and finally both flight crews activate a cockpit function, committing the aircraft to arrive at the meeting point at an exact, predetermined time.



Source: Airbus

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