On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 03:26:39 -0500, "H Pinder"
wrote:

It would be normal corporate behaviour to calculate the "liters per
passenger per 100 Km" using the most optimistic factors. Such as maximum
number of seats, every seat filled, best city pair, no delays of any type,
etc. etc.
The reality will be interesting to see.
Harvey
"alexy" wrote in message
.. .
nobody wrote:

Interesting tidbit from Bob Bliar:

The A380 consumes only 3 litres of fuel per pax per 100km, equivalent to
a fuel efficient diesel car.

But what is the operating cost per 100 km?


Interesting stat, but the followup discussion here points out a
question on exactly what this stat is. Is it fuel burn per passenger
mile at max passenger load (i.e., the 380 carries 110 times as many
passengers as the 5-passenger car, but burns less than 110 times as
much fuel per mile) or fuel burn per passenger mile at typical
passenger loads (i.e., the 380 at a typical passenger load of, e.g.,
450 carries 300 times as many passengers as the car at a typical load
of 1.5 people, but burns less than 300 times as much fuel per mile.

But in the car that fuel is only a few cents per mile. On average it's
probably only about 3 to 5% of the operating cost of cars that are
kept 4 years or less. The first three years my TA cost near 57 cents
a mile while the gas at today's prices would be about 10 to 11 cents
per mile. Back then it was about 8 cents a mile. Even at the
inflated gas prices the cost of a car would probably still put gas in
the 5 to 10% range.


Obviously, such a statistic based on capacity is far more significant
than one based on average use. 3 liters/passenger per 100KM? I suspect

Still, the bottom like on something that size will depend not on the
ultimate, but the average. At the end of the year the bean counters
are interested in how much it cost them per passenger mile and the
cost of the fule may, or may not become significant. (it probably
will)

there are MANY 5-passenger cars that will go further than 100KM on 15
liters of fuel, but not may that will go 100KM on 4.5 liters of fuel,
if 1.5 is the average load of the car.

The 380 will probably be the least expensive long haul plane flying,
IF they can use the majority of the seats.

A friend went to Alaska recently in a 747. He commented that they
could have put that many passengers in a commuter. OTOH when my wife
came back from New Zealand last year, every seat was full. The ones
in front of her had three air sick kids which made it a memorable 13
hours.

The one flight probably didn't pay for the taxi time, but the other
probably did quite well.

And my wife's old mini-mini van used to get 38 mpg. Now that it has
near 200,000 miles 262,000 km it doesn't do quite so well. It
probably takes the extra gas to pump out all that oil.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com


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