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Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel

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Airlines slow down flights to save on fuel

Old 05-01-2008, 02:25 PM
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You have neglected the most important thing that must be taken into consideration, and that is the departure time of my commuting flight home relative to my planned arrival time. I have not missed one yet. I would love to see the data on flight times at the end of a pairing. I've got dollars saying they're the best flight times on record.
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Old 05-01-2008, 03:02 PM
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Originally Posted by LifeNtheFstLne View Post
You have neglected the most important thing that must be taken into consideration, and that is the departure time of my commuting flight home relative to my planned arrival time. I have not missed one yet. I would love to see the data on flight times at the end of a pairing. I've got dollars saying they're the best flight times on record.
Amen....

Green Dot anyone?
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Old 05-01-2008, 03:04 PM
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This is a companion/complementary article about the increasing use of propeller planes because of fuel costs. I don't know about anybody else, but I've always been grateful for the propeller in my little C-172.

From BusinessWeek:

Queue up at Newark, N.J., for the 8:10 a.m. Continental Express flight to Baltimore, and you may be startled to find what many people consider a throwback to the 1970s: A plane driven by propellers, not jet engines. Get ready for more of them. The soaring cost of fuel is rapidly reshaping the landscape for regional flights at many airlines, leading to interest in a new generation of turboprop planes.

Most of the props are being deployed on trips of less than 500 miles. Beyond that, the economic advantages of a small jet kick in. For example, turboprops are now used heavily on routes such as Newark to Toronto; Seattle to Portland, Ore.; and San Jose, Calif., to Boise, Idaho. The two main beneficiaries of this trend are Montreal's Bombardier and the French-Italian aerospace joint venture ATR.

Alaska Air Group's regional subsidiary, Horizon Air, announced on Apr. 24 that it would convert its entire fleet to Bombardier's 76-seat Q400 prop within two years. "Through its combination of passenger comfort, speed, and efficiency, the Q400 is the best aircraft for the majority of our markets," Horizon Air President and Chief Executive Jeff Pinneo said in a prepared statement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24390211/
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Old 05-01-2008, 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by vagabond View Post
Is it true that you guys are slowing down or asked to slow down? The media has a poor reputation with me so why not ask the the people who actually do the work.

It would seem a moot point if the flight happens to encounter strong headwinds. Anyway, I don't mind a slightly longer flight if it can help. I already slow down when driving; I'm the one driving like grandma on I-5.
Ha!! Me too!! I'm glad I'm not the only one.
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Old 05-01-2008, 08:52 PM
  #15  
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Originally Posted by LifeNtheFstLne View Post
You have neglected the most important thing that must be taken into consideration, and that is the departure time of my commuting flight home relative to my planned arrival time. I have not missed one yet. I would love to see the data on flight times at the end of a pairing. I've got dollars saying they're the best flight times on record.
I'll second that statement, it's amazing that we can shot a visual approach at 250 kts till 5-7 miles from the airport on go home leg. Gotta love the props
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Old 05-02-2008, 05:12 PM
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I'm curious how much savings is made by slowing down versus the variable cost (and some fixed) of higher time on the airframe which speeds up it's useful life and frequency of maint. checks and the cost of the increased payroll by flying longer block times.


In the International spectrum, this could be significant if you have a flight that is blocked for 7 hr 59 mins which can be flown by a two-man crew. By slowing down whether specifically from company guidance or by personal choice, the segment that is just under 8 hrs is now over 8 hrs more than 50% of the time in a 90 day snapshot thus requiring the company to change the block time to reveal it is an over-8 hr flight requiring the use of a third pilot (Relief Officer).

Next, hub and spoke schedules are a delicate balancing act. When block times need to be lengthened, this upsets the apple cart and could possibly (not definately, in the case of rolling hub scheduling) create a situation where planes now spend more time on the ground waiting for other planes to arrive with their connecting passengers.

Finally, and maybe this is an intangible cost for running over block time, but what is the cost of lost revenue from a business person that is 15-20 mins late for a meeting, misses their connection, etc. We all know many people schedule air travel in their plans with the same margin for error as a trapeze artist.i.e arrive at ORD at 1230pm, meeting downtown at 130pm.


I honestly don't know which is the better solution. Just curious if others might have some thoughts...thanks

FF
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Old 05-02-2008, 05:50 PM
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The reality is that the slower cost index they've been throwing at us lately does not add a whole ton on to the duration of the flight. Last night on my redeye from SFO to JFK, we messed around with a bunch of different numbers and the slower ones added just a few minutes onto the ETE, and that was going all the way across the country. We were already using pretty slow numbers to begin with so it's not a massive change. It's not going to cause us to show up 20 minutes late or anything.

However, when you add up very small fuel savings times all the flights we do in a year, and it does add up over time. Just like the APU campaign going on. Few gallons here, few gallons there but multiply that by a large scale operation over time and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
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Old 05-02-2008, 10:02 PM
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In the long term run it sounds like a good deal. Slow down the TAS to get better fuel economy,but even that can't REALLY dent the fuel problem. With all this technology we have today you would think that by this day and age they would of realized the fuel problem and started creating alternative fuel options. Maybe they'll just wait till fuel becomes 6$ a gallon to start to consider other options. Who knows
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Old 05-02-2008, 10:27 PM
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Originally Posted by DAL4EVER View Post
Flying at Mach .62 makes sense only if you are at FL180. In the upper 20s and 30s however, every mainline plane getting behind you is way on the back side of the power curve. If the RJ burns 200 PPH per engine more at high speed but the Boeings are able to cruise more efficiently than that's what the flight planners should look at.
Delta puts the gas in Comair's tanks and Delta keeps the savings. Why would Delta insist that Comair bebop along at .62 if it's messing up mainline's operations? Comair doesn't always know who's 80 miles in trail and gaining fast.

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Old 05-03-2008, 06:51 AM
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Default Problem with flying slower

It doesn't work very well unless everyone else slows up too. DAL tried slowing up the MD-88s once, and we invariably wound up at the tail end of a large number of arrivals. After a long final approach, we had burned even more fuel than usual. Of course, somebody else probably saved fuel by getting in ahead of us, but I don't think that was the plan.
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