Austerity in the air

Mumbai, June 30: Airlines struggling to stay afloat amid rising oil prices are looking at every nook and toilet to prune fuel bills.

Passengers will have to get used to some mid-air turbulence with the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation projecting a loss of over $2 billion for the Indian aviation industry in 2008-09.

For starters, airlines on long-haul international flights are making brief fuelling stopovers, or even a detour to the Gulf, countries of the erstwhile Soviet Union or Iran, where aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs less.

Jet Airways and Air India are using a sophisticated mechanism by which a flight can carry the lowest possible fuel. “This has a dual purpose. It reduces the weight of the aircraft that leads to less consumption. It also allows the airline to buy minimum required amount of ATF in India where it costs more and then buy bigger volumes to tank up in another country where it costs less. That reduces the fuel bill,” said a Jet source.

Many Indian airlines running international flights have on board a computer programme that shows fuel costs in various locations and recommends the pilot to tank up more at a cheaper location and optimise fleet utilisation.

The cost-cutting measures have moved out of the cockpit. Passengers wishing to read magazines or newspapers should preferably carry their own as many of the airlines are doing away with them, at least in the economy class. And, use the toilet as sparingly as possible.

“There may be times when there isn’t enough water in the washroom on board. Our planes are flying with half or less than half-filled water tank as it lightens the load and reduces fuel consumption. And we are not the only airline doing this,” said a top source in Kingfisher Airlines.

Though airline flushes don’t use water, a single flush at 30,000ft requires enough fuel to power a car for 10km. Most airlines agreed that fewer visits to the toilets by passengers would cut fuel bills.

But desperate measures like a formal policy to discourage toilet usage on board, a la some Chinese airlines or stripping paint off aircraft surfaces to reduce flight load like a few American ones, are not on the horizon.

What is a priority, however, is getting rid of every ounce of extra flab on board to earn the extra mile.

“We give our planes a thorough wash to reduce the surface dirt and grime load after flights. This is a standard method used to reduce friction and optimise fuel efficiency,” said a Kingfisher spokesperson.

Air India says it does not have the time to do so as there is very little time between flights for the planes to be washed thoroughly. Instead, they have halved their newspaper and magazine load on board.

“We used to carry 8,200kg of newspapers and magazines on board an international flight — the highest by any Indian airline. Now we have cut it down by half as it saves fuel,” said Jitendra Bhargav, spokesperson of NACIL that represents the merged entity of Air India and Indian (Airlines).

“We have removed everything that is not needed. Unused ovens are out, heavy metal food carts and glassware have been replaced by lighter fibre carts and plastics weight,” said a source in Jet Airways.

At the technical level, airlines are leaving no stone unturned to optimise fuel efficiency.

“It is like tightening security in a crisis. The measures are the same, only they are being followed more rigidly,” said Bhargav.

So no sleepy pilots please! An alert pilot using correct thrust levels for perfect take-off and landing is not just desirable anymore, it is near mandatory as it can help save gallons of ATF.