NEW DELHI: Air India may not take diversion fuel on flights to destinations with multiple runways, in a bid to fly lighter planes and thereby cut fuel burn. It made the start on Monday by operating a Dreamliner with no alternate/diversion fuel from Delhi to Hyderabad, whose Shamshabad Airport has a main and a standby runway.
AI’s next aim will be to follow the “despatch with no destination alternate” approach on flights headed to Delhi in good weather and clear visibility months as the capital’s IGI Airport has three runways, said Captain Amitabh Singh, AI’s director-operations who thought of and implemented the “perfectly safe” approach. Saving fuel burn on flights to its main hub, Delhi, could lead to substantial reduction in the cash-strapped airline’s fuel bill.
Fuel uplift for a flight is decided by adding requirement for these segments of a journey: fuel for going from origin to destination; hovering fuel at destination; fuel to go to a diversion airport in case the destination is not available for some reason like some aircraft getting stuck on its single runway and finally hovering fuel at alternate/diversion airport.
