Some Australian airlines are flying slowly to save fuel as oil prices surge to record highs, it was revealed yesterday.
Like motorists trying to economize, pilots are easing off the throttle, national carrier Qantas and its budget offshoot Jetstar said.
Dropping the average flying speed on their Airbus A320s by about 10 knots or 20kph would save millions of dollars a year, Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said.
“We are conducting a trial of flying the aircraft at slightly lower airspeeds,” he said.
Airlines have a cost index from 0-99, in which “99 is what is usually simply called putting your foot to the floor — that’s essentially maximum fuel burn.
“Zero is the minimum, so its essentially how you ride the accelerator,” he said.
Jetstar was testing dropping its cost index from 30 to 10 as the price of aviation fuel soars along with oil, which hit all-time highs of more than US$135 a barrel this week.
“Essentially it means a reduction in speed of around 10 knots or 20km an hour over the course of a journey,” he said.
The slower speeds would add about six minutes to a trans-Australia flight from Melbourne to Perth, which normally takes between three-and-a-half to four hours depending on direction and other factors, Westaway said.
The extra few minutes do not appear to have raised the ire of passengers, who probably have not noticed among all the factors that can slow a journey, from delays ahead of takeoff to circling before getting the go-ahead to land.
On long-haul flights, those minutes would multiply and mark a strange reversal of the ambition to achieve ever-faster connections around the world since the invention of flying.
But with oil supplies finite and price rises appearing limitless, jet pilots driving like cash-strapped commuters appear to be a sign of the times.
Qantas, one of the world’s major airlines, which dwarfs Jetstar’s annual fuel consumption of 3.1 million barrels a year, issued a terse statement on which it would not elaborate.
“Qantas has used variable speed flight plans within its schedules over the last two years as a fuel conservation initiative,” it said. “This practice has led to fuel savings and lower carbon emissions without any significant impact on flight times.”
Qantas announced on Thursday that it would increase international air fares to counter the impact of rising fuel costs by about 4 percent from June 4, after a 3 percent hike earlier this month.
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS