How does your company plan fuel loads?

[Ty Webb]

Looking for some input. A certain airline has recently cut back on the amount of fuel they are dispatching flights with, and some pilots feel the amounts are little "light", to put it mildly.

Anyone else being dispatched to land with 5000# in a 73NG?

It's a good 1000# light, IMHO.


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[RJAA]

Too low at my airline

I dispatch at a major with all kinds of B737s and never do 5.0 FOD. It's all circumstantial, but at least plan 7.0 to an outstation on a picture perfect day. If it's a payload issue I would do 6.5 and bump payload. At my airline, the chief dispatcher on duty would evaluate the existing conditions at a hub airport and puts out his recommend FOD for the individual dispatchers to review and reference. I have seen 6.0 FOD being recommend into a hub on a clear day but it's quite common the dispatcher would pad up additional 1000-1500lbs.

 

[HalinTexas]

Looking for some input. A certain airline has recently cut back on the amount of fuel they are dispatching flights with, and some pilots feel the amounts are little "light", to put it mildly.

Anyone else being dispatched to land with 5000# in a 73NG?

It's a good 1000# light, IMHO.


.

We at ATA do it all the time on domestic flights. The only time it gets iffy is going into LGA. Never been a problem. Of course it depends on many factors other than WX, too.

In the summer when it's warm in MDW and we got full loads, OK, sorta full. We'll take off Max blast, flaps 25, bleeds off, and 5000# arrival fuel on the west coast. When we used to do that kind of stuff.

Our policy is "min fuel" declaration at 4000 lbs. and "emergency" at 3000 lbs. As a side note, we planned on 7000 lbs. min. arrival fuel on the B757 and 18000 lbs. on the L1011. The Trihog burns through gas pretty fast.

 

[HighSpeedClimb]

We at ATA do it all the time on domestic flights. The only time it gets iffy is going into LGA. Never been a problem. Of course it depends on many factors other than WX, too.

In the summer when it's warm in MDW and we got full loads, OK, sorta full. We'll take off Max blast, flaps 25, bleeds off, and 5000# arrival fuel on the west coast. When we used to do that kind of stuff.

Our policy is "min fuel" declaration at 4000 lbs. and "emergency" at 3000 lbs. As a side note, we planned on 7000 lbs. min. arrival fuel on the B757 and 18000 lbs. on the L1011. The Trihog burns through gas pretty fast.

What do you guys plan for arrival fuel in the 737-8 to Hawaii??

 

[400ADude]

I dispatch at a major with all kinds of B737s and never do 5.0 FOD. It's all circumstantial, but at least plan 7.0 to an outstation on a picture perfect day. If it's a payload issue I would do 6.5 and bump payload. At my airline, the chief dispatcher on duty would evaluate the existing conditions at a hub airport and puts out his recommend FOD for the individual dispatchers to review and reference. I have seen 6.0 FOD being recommend into a hub on a clear day but it's quite common the dispatcher would pad up additional 1000-1500lbs.

Depends on the length of the flight, weather enroute, and destination. A 1.5 flight with clear weather should dictate 5K-6K on landing depending on your companies specs. More flight time, different wx, and of course where you are going (LAX, LGA, SFO etc may require more) will require different loads.