Low on Fuel?

Posted by Miss Cellania in Car & Vehicle on August 10, 2008 at 1:46 am


I did not know that airlines are flying planes without full fuel tanks. To save weight, they calculate the least amount of fuel needed to get a plane to its destination.

With fuel prices now their biggest cost, airlines are aggressively enforcing new policies designed to reduce consumption.

In March, for example, an airline pilot told NASA he landed his regional jet with less fuel than required by FAA regulations.

“Looking back,” he said, “I would have liked more gas yesterday.” He also complained that his airline was “ranking” captains according to who landed with the least amount.

A month earlier, a Boeing 747 captain reported running low on fuel after meeting strong headwinds crossing the Atlantic en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport. He said he wanted to stop to add fuel but continued on to Kennedy after consulting his airline’s operations manager, who told him there was adequate fuel aboard the jet.

When the plane arrived at Kennedy, the captain said it had so little fuel that had there been any delay in landing, “I would have had to declare a fuel emergency” - a term that tells air traffic controllers a plane needs immediate priority to land.

Link -via Waiter Rant, where the author had a brush with a similar occurrence.

(image credit: Drewski2112)




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COMMENT

11 comments to "Low on Fuel?"

  1. MW
    August 10th, 2008 at 2:22 am

    Funny how somehow they’re still able to increase ticket prices, isn’t it?

  2. Martijn
    August 10th, 2008 at 5:17 am

    You are misinformed and, worse, spreading wrong information, thus causing a panic. Patrick Smith, a pilot who is also a columnist, adresses this question in one of his columns on Salon.com. I urge you to read in and edit your item accordingly.

    “Here’s one way to exploit people’s fear of flying: Tell them airlines are saving money by skimping on fuel.”

    http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2008/04/25/askthepilot274/index.ht ml

  3. MoonCake
    August 10th, 2008 at 5:50 am

    it is pretty bad though, Martijn. i mean, you can’t say that they’re not cutting fuel. and you also can’t say that people aren’t going to freak out about it. fear is a government tactic carried out through the media, and it works. it has been working for decades.

    MW– what do you mean “somehow?” along with decreased demand, gas prices ARE the reason for higher ticket prices.

  4. Orjan Morjan
    August 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    Decreased demand of air travel? Never been such a thing.

    And yes they calculate the needed fuel for the flight, always been that way.

  5. James Schend
    August 10th, 2008 at 10:02 am

    They’ve never, in the history of aviation, filled the fuel tank full. Unless it just so-happened to be a long enough flight to require the entire fuel tank.

    I agree that this article is just scare-mongering. A 777 isn’t your family minivan; it’s not ’safer’ or ‘better’ with a full fuel tank than an empty one; in fact, smaller planes are safer with less fuel since they lack fuel dump capability.

    Take a look at this case, for example, and imagine how bad it could have been with a full tank of fuel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JetBlue_Airways_Flight_292

  6. Tweeker
    August 10th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    There is no doubt they are pushing the reserve margin harder than they used to.

  7. James Schend
    August 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    Tweeker: The “reserve” is enough fuel to get to the furthest place you could possibly need to divert to, plus 45 minutes. It’s more than sufficient. Plus, any pilot that wants can ask for more fuel, they have the final say.

  8. Tweeker
    August 10th, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    What I mean to say is said reserve is getting dipped into more. Not that theres any need for hysterics, though.

    A 777 isn’t your family minivan; it’s not ’safer’ or ‘better’ with a full fuel tank than an empty one;

    Assuming the empty part of the gas tank isnt filled with oxygen now anyhow… Not that that risk is all that high relative to driving to the airport.

  9. scat
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

    A friend of mine who does load and fuel control at an airport has told me before that this is more common than most think. Pilots tell controls that they do not have enough fuel so that they have priority to land so that they don’t have to circle and wait in queue to land….especially a couple of international airliners which I won’t name.

  10. K!P
    August 11th, 2008 at 1:54 am

    wel i realy don’t want to sit on the fuel needed to cross the atlantic when im doing a city trip. Landing is the dangerous part.

  11. Chandrielle
    August 12th, 2008 at 9:44 am

    Also keep in mind that the heavier a plane is, the more fuel it needs. But fuel also has weight. So for any extra fuel they carry, they also need to add in extra just to carry the weight of the excess. It’s extremely wasteful to fill up the plane.


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