Originally Posted by
MrBernoulli
"Towing aircraft from a stand substantially reduces the amount of time they need to taxi with their engines running and reduces the time spent queuing before take-off," said Virgin Atlantic spokesman Paul Charles.
Prat! It doesn't reduce ANY time spent queuing for takeoff. You still have to load your pax at the terminal/stand AND get to the runway in use, AND WAIT YOUR TURN, with everybody else WHATEVER propulsive method you use. Good grief! Pie-in-the-sky nonsense.
Would that be a case of RTFQ?
Towing the aircraft out and either using a dedicated taxiway or a wide one to allow aircraft to be positioned to one side at say 45 degrees (unlikely) would work, but also getting the aircraft to start up as they reach the end of the queue, a short pause for the tug to disengage and leave by an access road then continue to the hold and off you go.
The idea is neither new or innovative. I've though it a good one for a while, and we only burn 200kg on the way out at LGW. For easterly departures from LHR, all that queuing for 9R would be a lot quieter and less polluting for T5 and that end of the airfield if most of the aircraft were sat there on APU and slowly being dragged along on tow, until they start up maybe three or four in from the end.
Best of luck to him.