Universal Weather & Aviation has unveiled an online portal aimed at making it easier for aircraft operators to prepare carbon emission reports for Europeπs emissions trading system. The system, which went live on January 19, allows the flight planning and support groupπs clients to draw the data they need directly from flight plans stored on the Universal server, which should greatly simplify the task of gathering the information needed to calculate emissions. The ETS reporting portal allows users to create a secure folder online in which they can retain flight plans to support their reports. They can directly upload this information to CICS, which is Universalπs partner for providing the necessary independent verification of these reports. The system would also allow operators to produce a report to be supplied to another independent verifier of their choice. Use of the ETS portal, including verification by CICS, is available to Universal clients for an annual fee of $3,000. Operators can also pay to use the portal without the verification included for a subscription of $1,100. According to Adam Hartley, Universalπs regulatory services supervisor, the ETS portalπs ability to deliver direct access to flight plan data eliminates the possibility of errors caused by manual entry of data. The new system will also allow operators to add data from flight legs for which a vendor other than Universal has handled flight planning.

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