Air France announced a while ago that new lightweight seats for their A319/320/321 fleet, saving 5.4kg per seat or an average of 750kg per aircraft, would reduce annual fuel burn by 1700 tonnes.
Now, let me find an envelope that I can scribble on the back of. All I need to know is the average sector distance for those three types in AF service, how many sectors a year they fly, and what is the estimated fuel consumption for each of them for those sector lengths. Shouldn’t be difficult …
[scribble, scribble]
OK. Here we are. I reckon that a 750kg weight reduction would result in a fuel consumption reduction of 0.13% for those fleets. Or, to look at it another way, any costs saved would be wiped out by an increase in the price of jet fuel from, say, $130 a barrel to $130.17.
Don’t think that my decimal points are in the wrong place, but you never know. Either way, I wouldn’t bank on any price reductions just yet.