Comments on: Are Airlines Carrying Enough EXTRA Fuel? I Put the Question to the FAA

By: Steve Filson

Steve Filson — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:29:06 +0000

Another little known item is there are airlines flying planes transcontinentally that were never intended as such. Both Jet Blue and Virgin American use the Airbus 320 which at full tanks, sometimes cannot reach the west coast from the east in the winter time without stopping in either Salt Lake City or Las Vegas for fuel. It’s because the jet streams blow much harder as a headwind in the winter and the Airbus was not designed for that kind of distance in those conditions. It’s happened more than once and something passengers need to be aware of when they’re being sold a “non-stop” ticket in the winter.

By: Elliot Campbell

Elliot Campbell — Sun, 18 May 2008 04:42:59 +0000

Actually, I have a related personal story about this, but it happened before the huge oil price spikes.

Was flying from Allentown, PA back to Chicago on a UA Express flight, think it was a CRJ-200. We boarded an hour late due to (surprise!) the ground delay program that was in effect at O’hare. You’d think this would signal to the airline/ground crew that maybe they should add a little extra fuel - in case their was congestion trying to land.

So we take off and its uneventful, until we get over Chicago airspace. The pilot announces that we have to circle while we wait for approval to land, will probably be another 15 - 20 minutes or so. Literally, a minute or two later, he comes back and says we have to divert to Ft. Wayne, IN (I presume our alternate) to refuel. So we fly another half hour to 40 minutes out of our way, spend 45 on the ground, and another 30 - 40 minutes back.

Eventually, we arrived over 3 hours late, 2/3 of which was caused by someone on the ground not thinking realistically. There are enough delays without having completely avoidable ones such as this. Think about it, if they would’ve put an extra, what, $50 worth of fuel on the flight, they would’ve saved themselves, hundreds, if not thousands, in extra landing fees, fuel at Ft. Wayne, extra pay to the crew, and travel vouchers for people like me.

By: Rick Seaney

Rick Seaney — Sat, 17 May 2008 22:47:59 +0000

I updated this story after I chatted with the person in charge at FAA (James Ballough) — he basically told me the USA Today story was a “non-story”.

By: Steve Filson

Steve Filson — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:08:22 +0000

Rick, actually the airlines have historically exceeded the FAA standard for fuel loads on jets. For the carriers that fly into very busy hub airports, the FAA standard is a little too bare bones. The FAA established this standard many decades ago before the age of congested air traffic. But there have been recent airline policies that have reduced the fuels toward the FAA minimum in busy areas and those are the pilots you are hearing from. Just remember, the 45 minute reserve takes you down to zero! No pilot in his right mind is going to purposely plan to dip into that reserve. With thirty minutes flying time remaining, that consitiutes an emergency fuel state allowing the pilot to declare such and demanding exclusive handling by the traffic controllers to get the airplane to the airport without any delay. Now it doesn’t seem like as much fuel does it.