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Old 2nd May 2011 | 19:55
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Young Paul
 
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,397
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From: Inside the M25
Changing CI actually makes most difference at lower levels.

At CI 10, your cruise mach at FL370-390 is likely to be around .77. At CI 50, about .79. That's a change of less than 2 minutes per hour - for a three hour cruise, about 5 minutes better. Your climb speed might change from 270-300, and similarly descent speed, which at a guess would net you another 4-5 minutes.

However, the difference between cruise speeds at FL290/310 (as you may end up on an ATC restricted route) is likely to be significantly different. CI 10 at FL270 is painful - with anything like a tailwind, you may end up at an IAS of about 240 kts, which is just WRONG (but might unfortunately be company policy).
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