Any steps that airlines take to reduce their costs improve the likelihood of them being able to offer cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. Over the weekend United started testing new fuel saving measures on flights between the U.S. and Europe.
United believes that it can save about 940 gallons of fuel, or about 3 percent of what it normally takes to fly planes over the Atlantic. This will be accomplished by allowing flights to drift up and down as much as 3,000 feet vs. keeping flights at a precise altitude throughout their trips. This allows fuel to be saved because pilots wont be burning extra fuel to maintain a precise altitude. Also pilots will be allowed to choose the best altitude depending on wind and other conditions.
Although United concedes that adjustments such as these will not make much difference on short domestic flights, they can be contribute serious fuel savings on overseas flights.
United will be using a flight planning system which calculates the most desirable route, altitude, and speed based on the wind and the planes weight which is reduced throughout a flight as it consumes fuel.
United and its regional partners consumed 564 million gallons of jet fuel in 09 at a cost of almost $1.19 billion. A 3 percent reduction in fuel consumption would equal almost $36 million in savings.
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