Ryan Air Question Re: Low Fuel

[mikeymike99]

Just seen the programme in which it seems Ryan Air planes fly with the minimum amount of fuel to save money. This can be dangerous if, for example, planes are diverted. But I can't understand why having extra fuel costs any more. If they have too much fuel for one journey, they just have to put less fuel in the plane for the following one. Unless carrying the weight of the fuel makes it expensive. Could someone explain.

[flump1]

I saw that item ...and wrote a note to self..." Do not fly Ryan Air " .

[Buenchico]

The more weight an aircraft carries, the more fuel is needed to fly it. If a 737-800 (as used widely by Ryanair) fills its fuel tanks to capacity, there will be nearly 22 tonnes of fuel on board, with much of that fuel being used simply to lift those 22 tonnes into the air. It makes far more sense (both economically and for the environment) to keep the amount of fuel on board to a sensible minimum.

[mikey4444]

Your penultimate sentence has it right.

Personally I wouldn't fly this horrible Airline, unless I had no choice. Leary is complete tw*t and I have no wish to make him any wealthier with any of my hard-earned money. He is a shyster of the first order.

[Hypognosis]

More load means more engine thrust is needed, to generate the additional lift to counteract the load. More thrust means higher fuel consumption. Maybe only a few hundred pounds per hour per engine more, which does not sound dramatic and might only be a hundred quid per flight hour but if they're barely scraping £5 profit per passenger then it becomes significant (to the bean counters).

A big second factor is that, if you carry a ton of fuel, which remains 'in reserve' on what is, essentially, a permanent basis then that reduces the amount of (potentially lucrative) air freight which can make or break the entire flight route.

[ToraToraTora]

same with a car, if you have a full tank it's like having a fat passenger on board all the time.

[Mojo-Jo-Jo]

It's all gravity's fault.
If an object has more stuff in it while it tries to escape Earth's gravity, it will need more energy to force itself off the ground.
The more fuel a plane carries, the more mass it has so the more fuel is needed to defy gravity like planes cleverly do. It makes economic sense to have them as light as possible on take off and landing.
I dread to think what would happen in an emergency though. Having said that, I've yet to hear of a Ryanair fireball disaster so I'll reserve judgement on how dangerous it is.

[ummmm]

The last Ryanair flight I was on couldn't land and was circling for 20 minutes before being diverted. Had enough fuel for that...

[Baby_Sham]

But, ummmy, you don't know that.
The program stated that Ryanair had "3 mayday incidents in 14 minutes"... eekk! One captain even said "the passengers never realised how close to the edge they were".

Jesus!!

[ummmm]

I do know they spent 20 minutes trying to land. I'm scared of flying so it was the worse 20 minutes of my life.

[Baby_Sham]

Jeysus!! That must have been horrific!!
I also HATE flying. Honestly, I'd be happy to go by boat for the rest of my life! :)

[Gromit]

It is not just Ryan Air. This is common practice.

It is just that Ryan Air pilots feel aggrieved over other matters so are prepared to spill the beans.

They are breaking no safety rules.

[douglas9401]

I find the idea of a pilot being more scared of falling foul of some knob in an office than of falling from the sky very strange.
Are they all borderline suicidal?

[EDDIE51]

No aircraft flies with full tanks unless it is necessary, they take on enough for the flight and some spare. There are strict rules about how much they have to have , in this case it is not just Ryanair all airlines do it all the time. Extra fuel means extra weight so higher cost, simple.

[Gromit]

// In January (last year) two Virgin Atlantic flights, which had been diverted to Stansted because of bad weather, sought a PAN priority landing. According to CAA records this was because of a “fuel shortage”. //

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/9488249/Pilots-forced-to-make-emergency-landings-because-of-fuel-shortages.html

There were 28 emergency landings last year as a result of low fuel down from 41 the previous year. Though the airlines involved are not named, I suspect many airlines other than Ryan Air feature in those stats.

Ryan Air is suing Channel 4 over the programme.

[theshedman]

Also filling the tanks would mean higher landing weight which can mean an aircraft would have to dump fuel before it could land. Think Buenchico gets it right with keeping fuel to a sensible minimum.

[237SJ]

I disagree that airlines "do it all the time". Anyone would divert due to low fuel if they are holding for a long time. It can even happen en route on a long sector due to strong headwinds (into Stockholm from the Far East is a popular one) but everyone has emergency fuel for a go-around. It has happened before though - I remember Malaysian getting into trouble after arriving at London and engineers seeing how much fuel was left. It was during a recession and they were trying to save money.

[naomi24]

I think a lot of people assume Ryanair is the cheapest without checking other airlines. My advice - check. You could be pleasantly surprised. Ryanair is the pits.