Enjoying the view from above
Have you caught a plane flight in recent times and thought it seemed to be taking just a little longer to get there? Well, it turns out, it really is! Some of the American airlines have admitted that they have been listening to all the people who tell us to drive slower, it saves more fuel, and they have been flying slower – and saving million of dollar in fuel a year as a result. And you have to assume if some of the smaller American airlines are doing this, so are the bigger ones!
An example quoted in the above article is a Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis flew at an average speed of 532 mph vs a more zippy 542 mph. This saved Northwest Airlines $535 in fuel costs and took 8 minutes longer. If we assume there were about 280 non-full fare paying customers in economy, then that equated to a saving of about $1.91 per person (assuming an Airbus 330 used as per NWA website). Not quite enough to cover the windfall American Airlines is expecting to reap with charging $15 per checked in bag (although it should be noted, American Airlines is not going to be charging this on most international flights…), but enough to lower airfares very modestly.
But a saving is a saving is a saving and if it only adds 3 minutes here or 10 minutes there (and hopefully at worst, 25 minutes to the long haul flights to Australia…), reduces fuel consumption therefore less greenhouse gas emissions, then its acceptable.
However… There is the problem with airlines narrowing their seating and shrinking seat leg space etc. Initially this effort was probably to maximise profits but now, thanks to rising oil prices, the airlines are doing it just to survive without having to raise prices to the extent they price people out of the market. This has made for some very uncomfortable flights as people fight over armrests, are unable to watch the little TV screen due to the seat in front being reclined into their face, constant poking in the back as the person behind rummages in the seat pocket and a general lack of respect exhibited by people who have paid for this inconvenience.
So if rising oil prices mean airfares are inevitably going to rise, causing some to speculate that flying will once again return to the domain of the rich, does this mean flying will also once again become a pleasurable experience? Because if we are paying for more our seats yet less people are flying, then it only makes sense to widen the seats and increase leg space increases again to make up for the luxurious cost of flying!!!
It will be interesting to see how the airline market will evolve over the next decade or so. Of all the conveniences we have come to expect in modern day life, the airlines are the ones that stand to loose the most. Energy to power homes can be sourced from a variety of things including wind, solar and nuclear. Cars can ultimately be designed to run on batteries (which will get their power from the power plants…), solar, or even something more wonderful like hydrogen fuel cells or water.
But planes??? No one seems to be thinking that batteries are to heavy to power a plane (and I doubt you could superboost charge one in the 50 minute turn around time of some planes), and I doubt with even one plane crashing a year, a uranium energy source will go down badly (although since a very small amount of uranium would power the plane for years, it would free up a lot of weight for baggage. But… a pipe dream at this stage – the technology is not there!).
So what do you think is the future of the plane? Will flights gradually retreat into the dim recesses of our minds as they become to expensive for all but the most important events in our lives of the rich? Will flights become more comfortable as less people fly? And will we develop another energy source light enough to fly planes before oil runs out in the next 40-60 years?!
