Airbus and its partners have completed another milestone in the fello’fly program, delivering a successful round of wake energy retrieval trials.
Toulouse, France – December 11, 2025. In collaboration with Air France, Delta Air Lines, French bee, and Virgin Atlantic, along with operations partners AirNav Ireland, DSNA, EUROCONTROL, and NATS, Airbus has advanced the fello’fly concept to the next phase. The initiative draws inspiration from migrating geese and demonstrates how cooperative flight can cut fuel use. In this technique, the lead aircraft generates an uplift that boosts the efficiency of the following aircraft, a phenomenon known as wake energy retrieval. When ready for operations, this method could trim fuel consumption on long-haul legs by as much as 5%.
The two-flight trials took place on eight routes across the North Atlantic between September and October 2025. Conducted under the SESAR Joint Undertaking GEESE project, the trials aimed to prove that the operational concept is both feasible and safe, guiding two aircraft to converge at a precisely planned time and location (the rendezvous process) while preserving full vertical separation and staying within air traffic regulations. Although the wake energy retrieval flights themselves haven’t yet flown on commercial services, validating the rendezvous procedure marks a critical early step toward real-world efficiency gains.
Each trial required meticulous coordination among the two airlines’ ground control centers, four air traffic control centers, and the two flight crews. The active involvement of AirNav Ireland, Air France, Delta Air Lines, DSNA, EUROCONTROL Network Manager, French bee, NATS, and Virgin Atlantic — via the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub interface — was essential to demonstrate the concept’s safety and practicality in real operating conditions.
Notes for editors
* Since its 2019 inception, fello’fly has leveraged biomimicry by mirroring natural flocking behavior. In 2023, the GEESE project, funded by SESAR’s Digital European Sky program, was launched to support collaboration and testing in air traffic management. Other project partners include Bulatsa, Indra, ENAC, CIRA, Boeing, Frequentis, UAB, Oro Navigacija, DLR, UCLouvain, and WaPT.Click. For more details on fello’fly and the GEESE projects, visit Airbus’ Future Aircraft Operations pages.
* In 2025, the trials successfully validated a rigorous four-step process for executing these high-precision maneuvers.
Step 1: The Airbus Pairing Assistance Tool (PAT) calculates new trajectories and shared rendezvous instructions in real time.
Step 2: The airlines’ dispatchers, flight crews, and air traffic control review the proposed trajectories to confirm operational acceptability, with the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub providing a real-time visibility platform for all stakeholders.
Step 3: One of the participating flights adjusts its route to join the other.
Step 4: Both flight crews activate a cockpit function to commit to arriving at the rendezvous point at the exact, pre-set time.
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