[Newsbot]

Title: Airlines Forcing Pilots To Fly \"Uncomfortably Low On Fuel\"
Category: Business
Posted By: hurley_108
Date: 2008-08-11 09:11:01

[bootlegga]

When a plane crashes due to this stupid policy, the offending airline will be sued into oblivion. Profit over safety is insanity...

[LightStarr]

I agree one hundred per cent Boot. Safety should always take a precedent to profit.

[Robair]

THAT doesn't exactly give me warm fuzzy feelings!

[uwish]

what I don't buy is legally, you must have a minimum of fuel. Operators have usually always only had the minimum amount required by law (which is 45 min extra flight time OR the closeset alternative airport).

If company's are doing less, they are breaking federal law.

[stokes]

Fuel like everything else adds weight, the more weight the more power is required to maintain flight speed the more power required the more fuel you burn....it is a vicious circle but I dont see anywhere that it said airlines were breaking the law, this is the new reality of high fuel prices,

[uwish]

so if they are not limited their reserve so what?

I fly with only 45 min of extra fuel. Just don't expect a plane that 'was' going to land in Calgary to land in Vancouver. It will have to now divert to Regina.

nothing that special I see this as a non issue really.

[BartSimpson]

This is also a matter of environmental regulations. Airlines have been fined for dumping excess fuel prior to landing due to clean air measures in many parts of the world so to avoid these fines the logical measure is to load just enough fuel for a trip. Net result is cleaner air and lower ticket prices as $5 per gallon jet fuel is not being dumped into the atmosphere.

[hurley_108]

No pilot is going to fill up willy nilly. The airline industry is littered with examples of cost cutting measures costing lives. If these policies become strictly enforced, it's only a matter of time before a plane goes down and people die. Did nobody read the story and click the wikipedia link to Avianca 52?