Chris Cantell Discusses Travel: With airlines economizing pilots are put under pressure by Zuzana Zelenakova

Being the pilot itself and having responsibility for hundreds of people aboard the plane is stressing enough, but these days it seems the airlines eager to cut costs are taking it to another level. In order to save some money airlines have reduced the amount of spare fuel on airplanes, which off course is making pilots uneasy. Less fuel means that in case of delayed landing or bad weather conditions pilots will be forced to emergency landing on some nearby airport. With insufficient amount of fuel pilots are put under pressure, and airlines statements to its employees are only contributing to this. Take for example Continental Airlines bulletin saying: “Adding fuel indiscriminately without critical thinking ultimately reduces profit sharing and possibly pension funding.” Airlines say planes remain safe, because they carry the amount of fuel required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Spare fuel aboard the plane should be enough to reach the destination and still be able to fly for about 45 minutes more. So far the inspections haven´t reported the violations to this rule. “All that carriers have done is ask pilots to justify when they want to have (fuel) beyond what is required by FAA,” said David Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, which represents U.S. airlines. The another argument is that less fuel equals less weight which enables planes to fly higher and burn less fuel, and also to carry more passengers or cargo. On the other hand there are pilots reports. Several months ago for example, captain of Boeing 747 has come across strong headwinds while crossing the Atlantic on his way to John F. Kennedy international Airport in New York and subsequently reported low amount of fuel. He wanted to stop in order to refuel but after consulting his operations manager who told him the fuel level was sufficient he went on. After the arrival at the Kennedy Airport he said that the plane had so little fuel that in case of any delay in landing “I would have to declare a fuel emergency.” And there are more we might say safety risk cases similar to this one reported by pilots.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_bi_ge/airlines_fuel;_ylt=AhioOupu0iExJrXqA6OItQSs0NUE

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Lucia Adamova