In the past one month, over thirty flights operated by Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet, most of them flying to Hyderabad, carried lower amount of fuel as compared to the other flights operating similar aircraft on similar routes.
Currently, fuel calculation for a flight takes into account fuel needed to fly to the destination, taxiing, contingency, reserve and most importantly, the amount needed to fly from the scheduled destination to an alternate airport in case it’s not possible to land at the destination due to some emergency.
But the flights mentioned above operated on a progressive, environment-friendly, fuel conservation initiative: if the destination airport has at least two independent, usable runways; if the weather is good, then with certain new practices in place, experienced pilots can be allowed to operate flights that do not carry fuel to fly from the destination airport to an alternate airport. Instead the aircraft carries an additional fuel for fifteen minutes worth of low-flying. With the initiative, IndiGo said it could save 2,100 tonnes of fuel while reducing carbon emissions by 6615 tonnes per year. Air India would save 140kgs per B777 Delhi-Hyderabad flight.
But experts caution against certain ground realities. Capt M Ranganathan, an air safety expert, said India’s airport infrastructure is too poor so airlines and the regulator shouldn’t go full throttle on this initiative yet. A senior B777 examiner pointed out that since India has only a few airports that can handle wide-bodied aircraft, it’s a tight-rope walk.
“If Nagpur airport is shut down for some unforeseen reason, and if at that time a Boeing 787 flying from Delhi to Hyderabad, without carrying fuel to fly from Hyderabad to Bengaluru develops a problem with its hydraulic system about an hour into the flight, then it would be a stressful situation for the commander. But that wouldn’t be the case with such flights flying, say in the United States, or even in the Middle East where airports have many operational runways. It’s a progressive idea, nevertheless. One that is here to stay,’’ said the examiner.
“My concern is whether the airlines have carried out adequate risk mitigation. Then again, pilot training for such flights cannot just be in the form of documentation. In the future, if more and more flights are allowed to fly without fuel to alternate destination, will airlines themselves ensure that all the conditions are met before such fuel-saving, moneysaving flights are released,” stated a senior A320 commander.
