Whether you’re an aviation enthusiast, or have the environment at the heart of your concerns, one subject many people talk about is aircraft fuel consumption. It’s a subject that many people talk about, but don’t have the data to back it up. In this article, we’ll try to give you an order of magnitude.
12,000 l/h for a 747
If you want to start with something impressive, let’s begin with the Boeing 747, which has the distinction of being big, having 4 engines and not being of very recent design. Well, it consumes around 13,000 liters of fuel per hour! That’s not 13 tons, but 10.5 tons, because the density of kerosene is 810kg/m3 instead of 1000kg/m3 for water.
These are impressive figures if you compare them to refueling your car, but they need to be put into perspective. In your car you are alone, or at most 4 or 5, whereas a 747 can accommodate over 500 passengers, even if most airlines operate them in configurations of around 420 passengers.
An Airbus A320 consumes around 3,000 l/h (2.5t/h). Why such a wide gap? The A320 has only two engines, whereas the 747 has 4. They (and the aircraft) are of more modern design than those of the 747, and are smaller and less powerful.
What’s the best way to measure aircraft fuel consumption?
13 tonnes per hour is impressive, but it doesn’t help us to get a clear picture compared with everyday things. While professionals speak in kg/h or t/h, the general public prefers to be addressed in l/100km.
Of course, it all depends on how full the aircraft is, but a 747 consumes around 3.1l/100km/passenger and an A380 2.9l. The more recent A350 consumes 2.5l.
To understand the progress made with each generation of aircraft, the difference between a 350 and an A380 may be “only” 0.4l/100km/passenger, but if you multiply by 300 passengers, that’s 12,000 liters less fuel consumption on a 10,000 km flight! Imagine what that means over the lifetime of an aircraft!
In fact, the difference is more than 12,000 litres, as the aircraft has to use fuel to transport its own fuel (which is logical), so a requirement of 12,000 litres less translates into greater savings, given that 12,000 litres will not be added to the aircraft’s weight.
When does the plane burn fuel?
While we’re on the subject, an aircraft does not consume its fuel uniformly during flight.
10% is consumed during take-off alone, 80% during cruising, 5% during descent and 1% during taxiing. You’ll have noticed that this doesn’t add up to 100%: there’s a safety margin of at least 5% in case the plane has to divert or stay in the air longer.
How much does refuelling cost?
The last question that often comes up is how much does refuelling cost? This is not an easy question to answer, as fuel prices can fluctuate very quickly.
In 2019, the price of kerosene averaged around $0.56/l.
If we refer to the figures provided by Index Mundi, over the last 5 years the price of jet fuel has peaked at $2.25/gallon (1 gallon=3.58l, here we’re talking about American gallons, not to be confused with the British or imperial gallon which is worth 4.54l.) and bottomed out at 0.61, which means between $0.62 and $0.17 (but that was when almost every plane in the world was grounded).
Over the past 5 years, the average is $0.50 per liter.
Given the capacity of the boats on board, a variation of just 5% has a major impact on the bill!
If we take the example of an A350 that consumes 48t of fuel between Paris and Pointe à Pitre, that’s 60,000l. With fuel at $0.5/l, a complete refuelling costs $30,000, and if the price rises to $0.56, the bill rises to $33,600.
On an Orly-Newark flight, an A321 Neo carries 20t of fuel, equivalent to a $10,000 refuelling. An A380, on the other hand, carried around 88t for a Paris-New York flight! But remember: it carried almost 500 passengers, compared with 76 for La Compagnie’s 321 Neo, used as an example here.
In 2019, The Points Guy website calculated the price of a full tank for certain flights:
- From New York JFK to London Heathrow: $27,270
- Return flight from London Heathrow to JFK: $33,411
- New York JFK – Los Angles: $10 757
- Los Angeles – Tokyo Narita : $19 190
- Chicago – Miami : $4 747
- Miami – Chicago : $7 201
These figures are for guidance only: as you can see, the price of a refuelling tank will vary depending on the aircraft. And you’ll notice that eastbound flights, which are shorter, consume less fuel than westbound flights.
And finally, if you’re wondering why ticket prices don’t always fall when fuel prices drop, we’ve already given you the answer.
One more thing…
We couldn’t leave without talking about the most extreme aircraft ever built: the Concorde. Its fuel consumption was 14l/100km/passenger, 4.5 times more than today’s “classic” airliners. And we’re curious about that of United’s future supersonic aircraft.
Image : refueling an aircraft de via Shutterstock
