BA's Fuel Policy & League Tables, safe or not?
I fly for BA.
We are under constant pressure to carry the legal minimum ammount of fuel fuel.
A recentlt introduced procedure is to ACARS the crew if the projected ZFW has dropped with around half an hour to departure, so that we can reduce our fuel onload even further.
A colleague flying SYD-BKK recently was faced with a tricky diversion and landed in Phuket with 2 Tonnes remaining.......not a lot in a B744. Oh and he had elected to take extra fuel..............2 tonnes extra!
Also, in addition to the constant pressure to reduce fuel carriage to the minimums, BA also keeps, and publishes, a "League Table" to highligh to pilots how their excess fuel carriage compares to their colleagues.
Of course that is "excess" departure fuel, not "excess" arrival fuel!!
What do the other professionals on this forum think of BA's policy? How does it compare to your airline?