A weight watcher for the MD-11 (from Lufthansa Cargo)
A weight watcher for the MD-11
Intelligent fuel-saving flying at Lufthansa Cargo
Learning how to save fuel when flying is part of the training curriculum for fledgling pilots at Lufthansa Cargo. The airline additionally seeks other ways to scale back fuel consumption in order to offset persistently high fuel prices. Moreover, the cargo carrier has set itself the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.
Although he himself is still a slim and slender 46-year-old, Roland Grätsch is the Company’s “weight watcher”. He is less concerned with his own waistline, though, his interest lying more in controlling the ‘diet’ of the eighteen MD-11 freighters in the Lufthansa Cargo fleet. As Fleet Captain Operations, he oversees the fuel-saving programme of the cargo airline.
The spectrum of potential savings is wide and varied: fuel-efficient powerplants, aerodynamic wings, nanotechnology coating of aircraft to reduce drag, new composites or regular engine washing – and naturally ongoing monitoring of aircraft weight.
“Weight Watcher MD-11” is Number 20 on a list of 52 measures aimed at reducing the fuel burn of the Cargo fleet. It may at times be a matter of very few grams but those few add up cumulatively to a matter of tonnes at an airline that operates 15,000 to 16,000 flights yearly with an average flying time of six hours.
The four older MD-11 freighters in the fleet were once passenger aircraft in their earlier lifetime. But when passengers are no longer in the cabin after their conversion into cargo planes, there’s no need for a public address system. So the phones once used to welcome people on board have been dismantled. Alone the removal of the telephone receiver, weighing just 350 grams, has helped save three and a half tonnes of kerosene per year. Since even thirsty pilots on long-haul flights drink no more than two to three and a half litres of water on a flight, only five instead of ten bottles are now stocked in the galley.
And since only as much comes out as goes in, the water supplies in the in-flight toilet have been reduced by 80 per cent. That again has lowered fuel consumption of the Cargo fleet by about 1,300 tonnes annually.
Water supplies in themselves are a good example of ingrained habits that for years are never questioned: But do we really need that amount? “We pilots have but little influence to optimise aircraft performance”, observes the Fleet Captain Operations. “Better engines, improved aerodynamics or utilising nanotechnology to paint an aircraft – that’s mostly left to the manufacturer or supplier.” But in the cockpit, it’s the pilot who has the decisive say on the best flap setting for take-off, or how fast the aircraft should fly at which altitude, or when to begin the descent optimally before landing, and whether or not to switch off the air conditioning after landing. Keeping the airconditioning system on after landing – whether necessary or not – consumes 60 to 100 kilos of fuel per flight. Above all, the pilots decide how much extra fuel should be taken on for eventual holding patterns or the need to detour to alternative airports.
Over the past two years, Cargo specialists have analysed how much extra fuel was tanked and how much was actually utilised on each of around 16,000 flights. Their findings in 2009 and 2010 verified the
trend from previous years: 97.2 per cent of the flights eached their
destination withou burning a single drop of extra fuel. The facts could scarcely be more eloquent: Whereas 2.7 tonnes of extra fuel per flight were taken on board in 2005, the figure was down to 1.85 tonnes in 2007 and it’s now just 1.4 tonnes.
Even that amount is an expensive extra. With an additional 1.4 tonnes of kerosene in its tanks, an aircraft on a ten-hour flight burns between 600 and 700 kilos more fuel. At the present price of kerosene, that costs a good 500 euros more - per flight.
Of course, Roland Grätsch knows “that the personal experience of each pilot plays an important role”. Each pilot is “is absolutely free to decide of his own accord how much extra fuel he takes on board”, Grätsch emphasises. Safety here is the topmost priority.
“We do not aim to just fly from A to B”, he says. “Besides optimising fuel efficiency, we also want flights to be environment-friendly.” Whenever he talks about saving fuel, he automatically converts the kerosene savings into the carbon emissions, which are not then additionally released into the atmosphere.
“The newcomers”, explains the experienced captain, meaning the younger pilots, “are trained ab initio to be economical with fuel when flying for Lufthansa Cargo.” Even now he tends to smile at hearing a young first officer confidently contradicting the captain: “So much extra fuel? I really don’t think we need that much.”