The effect of flight distance on fuel mileage and CO2 per passenger kilometer

Abstract

In this study, the effect of distance on fuel mileage (fuel burn per nautical mile) and CO2 intensity, based on a large amount of actual flight data, is discussed for narrow-body commercial aircraft performing domestic flights for flight distances of between similar to 200 and similar to 800 NM, in Turkey. For twenty-nine domestic routes, the average CO2 intensity is calculated to be 88 gr/pa-km, with an 80% load factor, ranging from between 112 gr/pa-km (207 gr/pa-NM) for the shortest route and 78 gr/pa-km (145 gr/pa-NM) for the longest route. An overall runway-to-runway analysis reveals that the average flight fuel consumption increases by 5.1 kg for each additional nautical mile. The discussion is extended to cover wind effect, through westbound and eastbound flights, on fuel consumption. The average fuel mileage of the eastbound flights, above 30 kft, is found to be 11.2% lower than those for the westbound flights. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to reveal the effects of three main flight performance parameters, namely, cruise altitude, cruise speed and aircraft mass on the cruise CO2 intensity.