Universal Weather & Aviation has expanded its European emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS) portal to provide better access for operators looking to purchase carbon credits. “For business aviation operators, Phase III of EU-ETS will be the first time they’ve been required to participate in the carbon market,” said Adam Hartley, Universal’s supervisor of global regulatory services. To minimize confusion on the part of customers, the company has selected CFP Energy to serve as a carbon brokerage, and extended its 24/7 support and assistance with ETS monitoring and reporting requirements.

Although the U.S. government has initiated legislation that may eventually circumvent the need for U.S. operators to comply with European regulations, Hartley emphasizes that operators should still plan to abide by them: “Until legislation that would supersede EU-ETS develops, operators must continue to comply with the regulation by submitting a verified annual emissions report and surrendering the appropriate number of carbon credits to their member states ahead of posted deadlines.”

At the NBAA Convention, the flight services provider announced that it has released an updated version of its free iPad Universal Ops Brief application, which allows for the notification, viewing, navigation, downloading and management of operational briefing packages from the company’s trip support services and/or its UVflightplanner.com flight-planning system. New features in the 2.0 version include e-mail forwarding using the default iPad e-mail client, printing of briefings from within the app using Apple AirPrint, and ancillary document management. Users can also open or upload operational briefing packages within other PDF-compatible iPad apps and services. The app can be downloaded from the Apple app store or through iTunes.

Through UVflightplanner.com, customers can now instantly receive Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU)-approved routing options from Eurocontrol, quickly conform their flight-planning format to ICAO 2012 requirements via an automated wizard, and calculate a high-level risk assessment. “These enhancements to UVflightplanner.com were created with efficiency in mind by eliminating manual processes such as having to make multiple calls to Eurocontrol for assistance when a flight plan has a failed route, filling in by hand the tedious forms for complying with ICAO 2012 requirements, or exiting their flight planning software to complete a flight risk assessment tool (FRAT),” said Marcus Walker, product manager.