On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:14:33 -0600, in
, Mike Schumann wrote:
I suspect that cost is while the airplane is in flight. Cost on the
ground would be significantly less.

Well, probably depends upon the aircraft... Bigger engines burn more fuel
even on the ground... For example, the GE CF34-3B1 used on the CRJ-200
burns around 400 lbs per hour per engine at idle... With 2 engines, that's
800 lbs per hour... Perhaps add some more for the APU, perhaps another
150 lbs per hour... That brings it up to 950 lbs per hour... At 6.7 lbs
per gallon, that's about 141.8 gallons per hour... For a 15 minute delay,
that's about 35.4 gallons... According to AirNav, the FBOs at MCO are
charging at least $5.59 per gallon for Jet-A... Perhaps the airlines get a
discount, so the price is a bit cheaper... Would $5 per gallon be a good
figure? If so, that 15 minutes on the ground costs them $177... Now,
factor in possibly having to run at a higher speed in order to make their
scheduled arrival time or how being late is going to cause other aircraft
for connecting flights to perhaps sit at the gate idling and I can
definitely see where kicking the screaming brat off the plane is best
thing they could do... Well, either that or shipping the brat as cargo...