luvtolean

Give me a fucking break.

I'm getting really tired of these assholes.

Plane flies five passengers from US to London - Telegraph

The airlines should find this guy's flight inteneraries and cancel any flight they can so he can sit marooned in Heathrow (a far cry from a deluxe airport) for a few days. Better yet, somewhere like Tianjin, China. A true shithole.

Make sure he'll miss something like his anniversary or kid's soccer game for maximum annoyance factor. (I'd say important business meetings costing him money, but we know these orgs are firmly anti-business)

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asiliat

Having said that, I read in the local papers the other day that 80% of the pollution comes from aircrafts, and not vehicles. So who knows - I can't prove the stat anyway.

MotoVegas

I don't think I would buy this without some seriously supported scientific numbers.

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ONEvcs

Planes fly empty more often than you'd think. Besides, no passengers does not mean no load. I am a tree hugger but I also like to be on time where I want to go and get there on time. Carbon footprints is like Valentine's day, just a commercial product.

JohnnyDiablo

I thought this thread was going to be about some Saudis buying up a whole flight to just sit alone.

Had to go back and read your commentary after the article LTL.

Yes the whole "go green" and reduce carbon footprint crap has gotten out of control. He needs to be thrown into a volcano to help reduce his carbon emissions and his footprint.

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luvtolean

And even if it meant no-load, sometimes that happens. Ask any trucker. Believe me, it's not because the airlines want to do it. They know more about the fact they're wasting resources more than any dumb-ass eco-terrorist.

Exactly. So, if there were no passengers, would that have made the carbon footprint infinite?

I am a conservationist. But conservation of fuel by the airlines is guaranteed by capitalism; fuel costs money. They don't fly planes empty unless they absolutely have to. Hell, they don't even have magazines on the planes anymore because some MBA asserted eliminating them would save so many gallons of fuel per year.

Let's talk about all the jet fuel Gore burns in his private jet...

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ccwilli3

what kind of pollution?

coal fired power plants and chemical plants are fighting for #1 I believe.

Google the 'toxic 100'

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proto

No idea how much it costs per to fly a 777, but it's got to be a lot. Landing fees, maintenance, crew salaries, not to mention the 22000 gallons of fuel.

I'd have thought that it would make economic sense for eveyone concerned if American Airlines had offered the five passengers a thousand dollars each, or more, to wait a day or fly with another airline.

luvtolean

On most of my trips, I'd turn down the $1000.

American HAD to move the plane to pick up 300+ passengers at Heathrow that were going to be waiting for it the next day.

American had the good fortune of not having to fly totally empty and moved 5 people through the spokes.

EDIT: As a frequent flier, I can tell you with certainty, the airlines will cancel your flight with no compensation (or at best airport vouchers to buy crappy food...if you're lucky and the resturant you want to eat at is open and will accept them) if they don't need to move the plane. They didn't fly for the benefit of the 5 lucky SOBs on-board.

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maxib

Not only what luv said, but the aircraft actually got better mpg without a fully loaded flight. IOW, the plane had to be in London one way or another. The fact that it carried a lesser weight payload actually saved fuel!

ccwilli3

fo sho. And then act like they are doing you a favor when they stick in you the middle seat near the crapper on the plane that leaves 8-18 hours later.

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SheepOfBlue

There is only one SoB

Good point on the plane needing to be somewhere. I have always wondered if you could create a adaptive program that would render the whole hub and spoke idea useless.

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ccwilli3

what is the cargo carrying load like compared to the load due to passengers for a triple 7?

I seriously doubt that flight had an empty cargo bay.

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luvtolean

Those were some lucky sons of bitches. I envy them.

I'd be pissing myself with joy if I got on an international flight and the plane was empty. I might violate one of my rules of flying, no alcohol, and have a celebratory beverage!

I was on a similar situation flight once. It was a late flight where they substituted a 777 for the small jet and there were 20 passengers on the hour long flight. The flight attendants and passengers were all loving it. The thing leapt off the runway and the pilot had to keep throttling it back to maintain cruising altitude. That plane wanted to run!

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nhfirefighter13

I'm thinking me and 4 other people on a big plane like that for a long flight like that is a plane ride from heaven.

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asiliat

okay, I was virtually smoking crack. My bad.

Here's the original article that I wanted to sight: Clearing the air in the pollution debate

Here's the data that the columnist is using: Canada’s 2005 Greenhouse Gas Inventory - A Summary of Trends

I'll sit down and shut up.

Bourne

I would have taken a grand to wait day. Why not? As long as I didn't have somewhere important to be.




No kidding. Last flight I took from St. Louis to NYC was on one of those itty bitty tin cans. That sucked.

CBR929RE

a lot of international shippers send stuff on commercial flights. A couple years ago I drove for a small shipping company. I dropped off a pallet of something at an AA terminal bound for England. I'm not sure if it was going on a passenger plane or not but I don't know if AA has many if any cargo planes.


I bet if there weren't 5 passengers on this plane and it was just going dead head to pick up the passengers in England we wouldn't have even heard about it.

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ccwilli3

It's interesting the different prespectives people have on plane sizes. I get on a 737 and think *crude*, this dinky thing. My wife gets on a 737 and says 'whew, glad this flight is a big plane'...

Not relative to the discussion, but something I find interesting...

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maxib

I don't really know the capacity of that aircraft, but let's assume it carries 155 passengers (but only 5 were onboard) who all are buffed, and average weight per passenger is 150 pounds. So we have a weight savings of 150 x 150 = 22,500 pounds regardless of the cargo the aircraft has onboard. Eleven and a quarter tons not on the plane = great gas mileage no matter how you look at it, and that is conservative judging from the weight of the people who have flown in the seats next to me.

Having piloted back in the old days (biplanes... I did graduate to monoplanes, but they didn't let me keep the machine guns) I can assure you that the weight difference is very noticeable as ltl mentions...I'd love to hear seamus chime in here!

luvtolean

The majority of my travel, especially international travel to Europe, in winter, is business related.

In Europe, normally we do meetings during the day, get on a plane that night, go to the next country, get picked up at the airport by local sales, repeat. Of course, the meetings with customers have to be planned well in advance.

A one day delay would be a logistic nightmare.

I talked to the pilot when I got off, and he was almost giddy. He said it was the lightest 777 load he'd ever done. Few people, no luggage, very light on fuel.

Depends on the last flight too though right? At other times I think "thank god this isn't another flight on one of American's damned MD-80s". (which is exactly what my last flight was )

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Bourne

That's why I tossed in the "somewhere important" disclaimer.

Naturally, if you're just flying home from vacation or something along those lines it wouldn't be a huge deal.

Baketech

How about we charter a half empty plane to go watch motorcycles race under the lights in Qatar...

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luvtolean

While normally I prefer my vacations not involve planes...that'd be a worthy exception.

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Baketech

Anyway, if they'd ever get that enormous plane conveyor finished, they wouldn't have to shuttle empty planes around anyway....