Airlines are among the largest consumers of fuel and,
consequently, among the leaders in wasting fuel as well. Being a relatively
economically unstable industry highly dependent on fuel, airlines are
surprisingly wasteful when it comes to fuel. With the rapidly rising costs of
fuel and fuel bills of $3.6 billion per year (Pew, 2012f), many airlines are
looking for ways to cut their fuel waste.
Developing alternative fuels, reducing delays, and reducing aircraft
weight are just a few of the ways that airlines are trying to conserve fuel. Even
with the technology available today, a perfectly clean burning alternative fuel
has yet to be developed. Until that day, airlines must cope with fuel wasting
situations such as severe weather, airport traffic, and mechanical malfunctions
with strategies that are readily available to them.
The largest, and perhaps most
obvious, waste of fuel by the airlines is delays. Weather, airport traffic, and
aircraft mechanical issues are among the leading causes for delaying a flight.
Although sometimes delays are unforeseeable, airlines can still take steps to
minimize their fuel use during these delays. For example, if an airline knows
that it will be stuck on the ground waiting for bad weather to clear out of the
area, they can pull over to a remote area and shut their engines down. This
would actually eliminate any fuel usage during the delay. For instances in the
air, however, it can get a little bit more complicated. There is no way to
foresee an in air delay for certain, but there are some steps that can be taken
during an airborne delay to minimize fuel usage. If an airliner slows down, its
fuel burn could be reduced by as much as 50%. This would greatly conserve fuel
for the airline. Most airlines are already taking these steps to conserve as
much fuel as possible during delays, however there are still some that do not
take any action.
In addition to conserving fuel
during delays, airlines are also wasting a lot of fuel on routine flights. With
a variety of alternative fuels available, there is really no reason that
airlines are not at least experimenting with using these fuels. While most
airlines are not experimenting with alternative fuels, the ones that are have
had outstanding results. On a small scale, a private pilot was able to fly a
single engine Cessna from Sydney to London using a petroleum based fuel derived
from waste plastics (Pew, 2012e). There are multiple advantages to using
alternative fuels. Not only do they cost more than 60% less than conventional
aviation fuels, but they also produce fewer emissions into the atmosphere (Pew,
2012e). The production of this fuel is also much cleaner than conventional
fuels because the factories use recycled products to produce the fuel as
opposed to the fossil fuels traditionally used (Pew, 2012e). The only problem
with this melted plastic fuel, however, is that it cannot be used in jet
engines like the ones used by modern airliners.
Fortunately for the airlines, there
are alternative fuels available for jet engines. A German airline, Lufthansa,
is currently experimenting with a biofuel made out of algae in its aircraft
(Biofuel). The airline started a six-month trial with the biofuel in April
2011. The trial had a very positive outcome. Lufthansa concluded that they
could cut their carbon emissions up to 50 percent by the year 2050 by using the
biofuel. Not only that, but the biofuel actually turned out to be more
efficient than typical Jet-A fuel (Pew, 2012d).
Other airlines, such as Australian
based Qantas, are exploring with hybrid alternative fuels. A Dutch firm called
SkyNRG developed a fuel made by mixing American cooking oil with Jet-A (Pew,
2012f). This fuel is a much cleaner burning and efficient when compared to pure
jet fuel. When Qantas’ annual fuel expense of 3.6 billion dollars a year is
taken into consideration, every little bit of savings matters. In addition to
this efficiency, less jet fuel is wasted because 50% of the total quantity is
actually cooking oil, reducing the amount of jet fuel used by half. As an added
benefit of this hybrid fuel, the cooking oil and jet fuel mix leaves only 40%
of the carbon footprint that pure Jet-A fuel leaves (Pew, 2012f). Reducing the
carbon footprint is essential to the survival of the earth. According to Bill
McKibben, author of “Waste Not, Want Not”, carbon emissions “kill you and turn
Beijing brown” (McKibben, 2009). Carbon dioxide emissions have been directly
attributed to the burning of traditional fossil fuels such as jet fuel, coal,
and gasoline. Thus, using clean burning alternative fuels by airlines would
greatly reduce the amount of fuel wasted and carbon emissions produced in the
world today.
Alternative fuels aren’t all
glorious, however. As Harry Jackson and Niger Innis point out in “Going Broke
by Going Green”, converting to alternative energy sources could prove to be
extremely costly (Jackson, 2011). According to the piece, every single scenario
involving alternative energy sources ends up being more costly than traditional
sources because it’s more complicated to produce. While it may be better for
the environment, it may not be economically feasible for every airline in the
world to convert to these alternative energy sources. This is especially the
case for smaller airlines that do not have the manpower or finances to research
and develop these fuels. In order to implement these alternative fuels, new
production factories must be built, new scientists and engineers hired, and
experiments must be done. All of this would not be worth it for a small airline
with just a few airplanes in a centralized location. However, in the case of
large airlines with hundreds of airplanes throughout the world, alternative
fuels may be economically feasible in the long run due to their efficiency.
Smaller airlines are not completely
helpless, however. Most small airlines have turned to some extremely creative
solutions in order to cut fuel waste. According to McKibben, one million
plastic cups are distributed on airline flights every 6 hours (McKibben, 2009).
Some airlines have actually taken steps to limit the amount of supplies they
carry on their airplanes. Not only does this eliminate the waste of the unused
supplies, but it also reduces the weight of the airplane. When airplane weight
is reduced, even by as little as 500 pounds, fuel burn is reduced. Depending on
the airplane, airlines can reduce fuel consumption by up to 10 percent just by
reducing the amount of catering items carried on board the airplane (Hansen,
2011).
The amount of fuel wasted by
airlines is not necessarily a quantifiable number. However, it is evident that
there are many airlines out there that are not taking necessary steps to reduce
their fuel consumption. Through techniques such as reducing the weight of the
aircraft and technology like biofuel or hybrid fuels, airlines can ensure that
they minimize their fuel waste. On the other hand, if airlines continue to gulp
down fuel as they do now, passenger ticket prices will continue to skyrocket
and carbon emissions will increase steadily. These two effects would be
detrimental to the airline industry.
Works Cited
Hansen, M. Ryerson, M. (2011). Fuel Consumption and
Operational Performance. Atmseminar.org. Retrieved
from
http://www.atmseminar.org/seminarContent/seminar9/papers/72-Ryerson-Final-Paper-4-14-11.pdf
Jackson Jr., Bishop Harry, and Innis, Niger. (2009).
“Going Broke By Going Green.” In R. Frohock, K. Sisk, J. Glover, J. Cross, J.
Brubaker, J. Alger, J. Fokken, K. Jones, K. Dyer-Fisher, & R. Brooks
(Eds.), Academic Universe: Research and
Writing at Oklahoma State University (pp. 381-383). Plymouth, MI:
Hayden-McNeil Publishing.
McKibben, BM. (2009). “Waste Not, Want Not.” In R.
Frohock, K. Sisk, J. Glover, J. Cross, J. Brubaker, J. Alger, J. Fokken, K.
Jones, K. Dyer-Fisher, & R. Brooks (Eds.), Academic Universe: Research and Writing at Oklahoma State University
(pp. 363-368). Plymouth, MI: Hayden-McNeil Publishing.
Pew, G. (2012, September 19). Lufthansa Signs Biofuel
Agreement. Avweb. Retrieved from
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/lufthansa_algaetec_biofuel_production_agreement_airline_207372-1.html
Pew, G. (2012, August 29). Pilot To Fly Cessna On
Fuel From Melted Plastic. Avweb. Retrieved
from
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/cessna_182_cynar_plastic_garbage_diesel_fuel_sydney_london_roswell_207276-1.html
Pew, G. (2012, April 11). Quantas Jet To Fly On
Cooking Oil. Avweb. Retrieved from
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/qantas_cooking_oil_flight_airbus_skynrg_206515-1.html
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