BA tankering fuel

[myrtleman]

Hi all,

Can someone explain to me what is meant by planes 'tankering fuel' into LHR. I can't imagine that the amount of excess fuel a plane could carry would make much difference to fuel supply at LHR.

James

[Re-Heat]

That is exactly what it means, and it certainly does make a difference with Buncefield supplies still not fully replaced - aircraft are not all full to the brim on most flights.

Aircraft at limit of range can upload most of requirement; all others must expensively bring in the remaining requirement for their outbound flight from Heathrow or make a technical stop elsewhere.

Perhaps you are thinking that they offload fuel - they do not.

[TopBunk]

Shorthaul aircraft generally can uplift enough fuel at destination to return to LHR and still have enough fuel to get to their next destination. For example leave Rome and land at LHR with enough fuel to go to Madrid, thereby requiring no fuel uplift at LHR.

Longhaul aircraft at very long range cannot do this. For example coming back from the Far East, the takeoff will pretty much be at max TOW, thus tankering is not an option.

Longhaul aircraft of short routes, eg JFK, BOS, CAI, DXB are normally taking off at weights up to 100 tonnes under max TOW, and landing maybe 40 tonnes under max LW. Therefore these aircraft have been recently tankering fuel into LHR and landing with maybe 50 tonnes of fuel remaining, as opposed to the normal 10 tonnes.

By exercising these strategies the LHR fuel shortage problems have been minimised.

There are knock-on effects in terms of costs to tanker the fuel (you burn about 3% per hour to tanker the fuel, so on a 10 hour flight you would burn 30% of the extra) and in cold weather you can get ice build-up on the wings due to the cold fuel.

[Hotel Mode]

BA no longer tankering on any long haul flights due improved supplies (believe extra trains are now running to the terminal at Colnbrook)