It is and aerodynamic fact that as weight of an aircraft increases the fuel burn increases.
Today’s aviation turbine fuel is approximately $1 AUD per kg at a historically moderate
price. The current price and historical prices can be found at https://www.iata.org/
publications/economics/fuel-monitor/Pages/index.aspx or https://www.indexmundi.com/
commodities/?commodity=jet-fuel&months=12¤cy=aud for Australian prices per
gallon.
For each hour that an aircraft is in the air if the weight increases by 1000kg the fuel burn
will increase by approximately 30-40 kilograms per flight hour.1
For example:
A380
16 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 600 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
13 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 467 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
8 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 260 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
B787
16 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 550 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
16 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 600 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
A330
11 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 360 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
4 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 120 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
B737
3 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 130 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
1 hour flight / increase weight by 1000kg = approx 40 kg increase in fuel burn for the
sector;
In summary any way that the aircraft weight can be reduced this will result in significant fuel savings over the life of the aircraft.
Typically the average utilisation of an airline figures obtained from typical airline 1 operations worldwide.
aircraft is 11 hours per day . Each day that an aircraft operates 2 with 1000kg’s of
unnecessary equipment will result in approximately 440 kg’s of unnecessary fuel burn that
is non recoverable. The typical life of an airline aircraft is approximately 25 years. This
results in 4,015,000 kg’s of fuel being burned during the aircrafts life cycle for each 1000
kg’s of unnecessary weight carried. Depending upon the current fuel price, which is an
airlines largest cost input, this is a significant factor in profitability. Today’s aviation turbine
fuel is approximately $1 AUD per kg at a historically moderate price. The current price and
historical prices can be found at https://www.iata.org/publications/economics/fuel-monitor/
Pages/index.aspx or https://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=jetfuel&
months=12¤cy=aud for Australian prices per gallon.
Now you know why carry on and checked baggage limits apply and many carriers,
particularly in the USA, now charge for any checked baggage and they maintain strict
hand luggage limitations. This is also why the cans of soft drink loaded are small size,
why there has been a revolution in lightweight materials and composites that have been
developed in aircraft manufacture and why fly-by-wire was developed so heavy control
cables no longer travel from the flight deck to the control surface to move the flight control
surfaces. Fly-by-wire allows electrical impulses to be used to drive actuators electronically
at the control surface and replacing the need for heavy cables. These improvements and
innovations are significant and Inflight Entertainment is next in line with the revolution of
inflight WiFi.
A typical inflight entertainment screen and the associated wiring and support systems for
inflight entertainment are very heavy. In a 2014 paper produced by Luke Jensen and
Brian Yutko, Ph.D at MIT3 they clearly articulated the costs associated with inflight
entertainment in respect to increased fuel burn. According to Jensen and Yutko the
average weight of an inflight entertainment system per passenger is around 7 pounds
(3.2kg). A B737 typically carries 170 passengers equalling 544kg. An A380 with 500
passengers equals 1600kgs of inflight entertainment.
This is one of the key reason why airlines are currently racing to install inflight WiFi with
connectivity to remove the weight cost and also the heavy implementation cost of inflight
entertainment at approximately $10 000 per screen4. It is a price point issue and in the
first and business class cabins a large inflight entertainment screen is an expectation of
the customer. This is no longer the situation in the economy cabin and especially the low
cost market where a customer can easily take their iPad or other personal device onboard
and have connectivity to their own selection of entertainment on a device that is far
superior to a seat back screen.
This is where Inflighto is well positioned to capitalise on the implementation of WiFi as it is being rapidly rolled out on airlines world wide.
2 MIT Airline data project. http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/Aircraft&Related.html
3 http://apex.aero/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/APEX-Airline-Fuel.pdf
4 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/business/airlines-travel-entertainment.html