Eco-Scandal! AA Plane Flies 5 Passengers From US To London

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board.

The flight from Chicago to London meant that the plane, a Boeing 777, used 22,000 gallons of fuel.

Friends of the Earth said it was 'obscene' to waste so much fuel flying an almost empty plane

It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups.

The latest "eco- scandal" flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London.

While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be accommodated. Those who did fly were upgraded to the business class cabin.

But while they enjoyed lavish hospitality, the airline was accused of an "obscene waste of fuel" by Friends of the Earth.

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Comments

[Skepticat]

As one who had a trip ruined from being bumped from an overbooked flight I offer this observation

Airliners be they Boeing 777's or Ford Trimotors have a limited number of seats - airline employees should be able to count the specific number of seats on their planes and not sell more tickets than there are seats.

[WLA]

It's the money, silly. They overbook because they always get screwed by people who miss "there" (sic) flight.

[sparkandy]

If I were to ever have to pay for a ticket, which at this time I don't, and I got bumped, I'd go for the voucher. If you're flexible you can get bumped, get a voucher, which is the same as cash, and use it on your next flight. Sometimes the vouchers almost pay for the next trip. I speak to pax all the time who do this, because they like the free flights, and the airline is perfectly happy to accomodate them.

[hpskyguy]

And if passengers could tell time and use a calendar rather than no show flights airlines would stop taking advantage of the cost factor of over booking! Why do you think you get a paper voucher rather than a code that can be tracked by name telephone or E mail. Thats right most people mis place them.

[mightyearth]

Do the math:
That's still 80% more effecient that Al Gore flying alone in his jet.

[MajorKong]

Not really. Even if Al has something like a Gulfstream it uses a LOT less fuel than a 777. It probably uses as much fuel as a 777's APU.

[WLA]

Facts don't matter to trolls.

[railcrew]

As much as we like to tease about Lawyers, I wish some clever Lawyer out there would come up with a way to SUE these environmental groups that refuse to let us get our own oil, instead of depending on OPEC, like up in Alaska, Calif, Wyoming, Texas, Gulf coast. The price of gas is ruining everything because shipping costs are going right into the price of goods. Inflation is to blame on high gas prices, and the environmentalists, not "W"

[MajorKong]

US oil production peaked in the early 1970s. There's just not enough oil in those states to make up for what we get from the Middle East. What is there is difficult and expensive to extract. We picked all the low hanging fruit years ago.

[dragon1]

Here we go again with the oil issues...lol. You Yanks should pay more attention and /or learn more about the rest of the world and not let bad politics and hearsay influence your endevours around the world. For instance I still can understand after all these years of lies on the part of your politicians, why you folks insist on even dealing with all those unstable middleastern countries and their oil. The middle east isn't and shouldn't even be a little bit important to you! You don't need their oil !!! IF your politicians had any real clue, they'd have realized years ago that , not only does the USA import MORE oil from Canada than all of the middleast combined, they haven't seemed to have heard that Canada ALSO has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia ! Now, could any of you give a really good reason to the families of all your fallen solders in Iraq, why did you go there in the first place and why are you STILL THERE !

[tbail]

Two books you might be interested in: One is "Energy Victory" by Robert Zubrin. It makes a strong case for alternative fuels, and how we could defeat Islamic terrorism by switching to alternative fuels and cutting off their money supply.

The other is "Black Gold Strangehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil" by Jerome Corsi. It explores the theory that oil is a natural, renewable resource. The term "fossil fuel" comes from one paragraph written by a Russian scientist in the 1800s'. The author quoted Thomas Gold of Cornell University who used spectrographs to find evidence of hydrocarbons on Jupiter's moon Titan. No one has found evidence that there were dinosaurs or plants decomposing to make oil on Titan.

[nightprowler]

you must be joking right,or just ignorant.oil was 20$ a barrel when "w"
was appointed to the throne where it had been for a decade and "oilmen" were loosing there ass's and jumping out of windows in houston.now even karl rove says we have to stay in iraq for the oil.why do you think they were in such a rush to get into iraq.you think maybe enron would have gotten a few of those no bid contracts?

[Jethro212]

Yep, exactly correct. The cost of Oil now is inflated quite a bit, however, it is due to many factors. Iraq is a small part of that pie. If the USA did harvest it's own oil it would help some, but not much. Global demand is just enormous now, China, India and other devoloping nations want the good life too.

The key to ending this stupidty in fuel costs is simple, buy diesel, use coal to make the fuel... Save our fields till the rest of the planet is screwed, then sell it.

Also, it won't be long and we will be able to harvest the old fields that were never truely emptied, since technology isn't around yet to fully get allthe oil.

But enviromentalists are a huge problem, granted they do have a point, but they are way too powerful. And now, they are screwing our society over to push their wacked out beliefs, psst, all you hippies who are slammn this guy? Turn your computer off and build a mud hut, till then shut up about some stupid hybrid car that takes tons of resources to make, just like the other "normal" types. Buy a diesel, the new engine technologies are insane, my truck has virtually NO NOx gases!

[thomasomalley]

Jeez, this is all pretty stupid. I also read a comment today about the damage volcanoes do. It's about WHAT we CAN control not what we can't. It's ridiculous to be flying planes across the world ten times a day, never mind empty ones. The future is not yours alone. Eco fanatics may be a pest sometimes but their point is much truer than all these redneck capitalists. Don't you people have children? Or are yours just going to live up on the hill? Does everyone in America assume that driving a hummer is their god given right? Don't even get me started on god. Like elvis, he has left the building.

[plasticairedale]

It is still a free country and to say that we all need to ride around in an electric golfcart instead of a Hummer is absurd. Since when does the environmentalist religious groups make policy for all? Let those who preach this radical religion walk or swim to Europe. It is not my fault that I book a ticket and only 4 others choose to. High density travel and housing is not what people should be forced to use just because a small group thinks it is proper. keep your pathetic beliefs to your self. Your God is the earth. Mine is larger. Get over it. Take your carbon credits and buy food for your neighbor.

[WLA]

"Your God is the earth. Mine is larger."

===

Yours is money. Got it.

[ajc42]

considering a 777 probably costs about $4500-$5000 an hour to run (estimated figure, but close), im sure american airlines had good reason to do what they did, or somebody just lost their job. Regardless, stupid article, no offense, but planes fliy all the time without a full load...i just landed from flying solo and i didn't get an article :)

*Please forward all complaints to th FAA.

[Jethro212]

The reason they do still fly is a simple one, they agreed to give "scheduled service" as part of their license. I too fly, and I was involved in starting an airline (small charter using 1 jet). The gov likes the charters to do scheduled services, its a part of the economy logic, people get to be more mobile.

The above post talking about 5,000 dollars an hour for a 777 is quite a bit off, give you an idea a small biz jet like a CJ1 is 1600 bucks an hour (crew/fuel­/maint/ins­). I think a Gulfstream 5 from Warren Buffet's company is 5500 an hour honestly, I didn't bother to look it up, been a year.

[GAC1]

This is a non-issue as airlines do this all the time.
How do I know? I worked in the industry for over 13 years.
As the other person stated, it was probably loaded with cargo including UPS and Fed Ex.
(Those two don't fly their jets everywhere...How do I know? I worked for Alaska Airlines and processed thousands of FedEx and UPS shipments.)
The other thing is that the passengers may have been moved to first class due to weight and balance issues and this can often beat the discretion of the operations agents who make sure the aircraft is safe for take-off and landing.

[TNRR]

Do we hear any tree hugging putzes complaining about Al Gore flying his huge jet around to talk about global warming? No. When people you the same yardstick for eveyone, aybe I will take them seriously.

[WLA]

How many times is this stupid excuse going to be used in one thread? Go back Rush's site ass.

[okAcomputer]

I agree with WLA pointing out al gore's hypocrisy doesn't suddenly excuse everyone else. you sound like a five year old, who when they do something wrong, and are questioned, their defense is. 'well so and so i doing it.'

[RogerHWerner]

I think you may have missed the point. This is an issue precisely because airlines do it all the time. The point is that they shouldn't do at all. It might not fit in with the profit motive but it would make more sense to fly passengers with other airlines rather than fly and nearly empty plane (at least make the effort). Last time I've been on a nearly empty plane was on a flight from Paris to Tel Avis about 13 years. ago. This may indeed occur but the less frequently the better.

[woggins]

Heck... 5 passengers!!!

That great compared to some plane owning hollyweirds.

Katie Holmes Cruise flies to Europe for a shopping spree with Suri on crazy Tom's jetliner.

John Travolta uses his plane daily to commute for $cientology auditing with only himself on the jetliner.

[Logisticspro]

Totaly correct!!
This is were most cost goes in pricing out freight as there is not always freighht going back.
This is mainly seen on imports from china and is part of your pricing when you book a container from china is the return of that container to china.
There are main Logistics issues facing carriers is that a standard 40" container comes into port is unloaded and sent to a crossdock facility then repacked into a 53" trailer and trucked inland.

[hobiefam]

Well here's some real news, there are 100's of thousands of gallons being wasted to ship empty Shipping Containers back to Asia from the US.

These ships are sailing with maybe 3% of their containers full. The rest of the 8000 to 13000 containers are completely empty as they are being shipped back.

So what's the option, not send them back? It's the same deal with Airplanes, you have to send it back for the next load.

You could extend this to UPS and Fed Ex trucks once they have delivered all their packages, it's wasteful to drive them back to the yard empty.

Come on folks, let find some real issues to talk about.

[Peter16057]

Leave it to the Greenie Weenies to complain about something else they have no idea about!! I'm sure if they had thier way, we would be delivering freight and mail via sail boat and stage coach!!

[Bboyshoes42]

Ok, yes, it is horrible that much fuel was wasted to carry only five passengers. However, I honestly wonder how much fuel is wasted with private plane trips of the same sort, drivers of obscenely huge cars, 20% full tractor trailors....

[MajorKong]

22,000 gallons? Heck, I've DUMPED more fuel than that over the years.

[tbail]

Yeah but did you dump it into Nantucket Sound like liberal icon Ted Kennedy?

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Kennedy_polluter/2008/03/14/80443.html?s=al&promo_code=473F-1

[mroboto]

"ECO-SCANDAL!!! The dirty, dark secret of an airline and 5 passengers..."

Is this the most pressing issue environmentalists can think to highlight? I'm all for clean air, a smarter energy policy, etc, but this just doesn't seem that 'scandalous,' considering the BILLIONS of people on the planet and the true environmental tragedies that happen every day.

What's next? "BATHROOM SCANDAL!!! Kansas City Airport uses 2-ply TP when studies show 1 ply is sufficient..." or "CAUGHT ON CAMERA!!! Senator Leiberman forgets to recycle his newspaper on Tuesday..."

[chasgoose]

Well I am glad people realized that this is not really a scandal at all. AA doesn't have a base at Heathrow where it just has planes sitting in a hangar it can simply roll out if the incoming flight doesn't come in. They needed that plane so the passengers returning from London had a plane to fly back on, especially if there were already incoming flights to London that were cancelled that day. People don't realize this, but airlines often do this with NO PASSENGERS AT ALL. If they need a plane at a specific location and for whatever reason they didn't get one there due to their passenger flights, they will fly one over to the required airport so that its ready for the flight. Its called repositioning equipment and it happens all the time (although rising fuel costs have motivated the airlines to reduce those flights).

Finally, those who question why they couldn't simply sell more seats at a ludicrously low fare demonstrate how out of touch the environmental movement is with how the world works. First, this clearly was a last minute decision and I imagine that no more than 3-4 hours elapsed between the decision to fly the 5 people and their departure. I don't know many people that would be able to find the cut rate flight, drop everything, and get to the airport and get through security for a flight to London in that amount of time. Furthermore, just because the outbound flight would be mad cheap, that does not mean that the return would and since it was so last minute, I am sure that the full fare prices for the return would offset any savings accrued by the outbound.

[oneofsixbillion]

I dont work in the airline industry but as a young man with an MBA , I can tell you "where there is waste there is profit". Your statement about environmentalists being out of touch is more of a statement about yourself. Some smart thinking cookie with an environmental vision is going to figure how to reduce the waste of repositioning, increase profits, and save the environment all at the same time. Your, "its just the way its always been done" attitude is what's dated and stuck in the 60's still hating hippies who really have no influence on us younger leaders. You might want to re-look at that before you are replaced by someone more foreward thinking and you become even more insignificant. Good luck

[mooph]

Speaking with a pilot last night, he said they also do this for maintenance -- to get planes to places where maintenance can be performed on a plane. Being the smart MBA that you are, how much would it cost to have fully equipped maintenance facilities at all ports? What's the downside to not flying unless planes are (mostly) full -- competition-wise, customer satisfaction-wise, etc.?

You want to cut waste? How about cutting millions of dollars from the bonuses that white collar pencil pushers garner instead of cutting workers' contracts (attendants and pilots included)?

By the way, the pilots' contract is due for renegotiation. Let's see the amount the CEOs and board members quibble about, and compare that to the top 100 bonuses within the industry.

[chasgoose]

Smart thinking cookies already HAVE thought of ways to reduce the waste of repositioning or "deadheading" but as mooph pointed out, unless an airline operates a full-scale maintenance facility and has a hangar of planes on hand at pretty much every aiport it flies to, there are going to be some repositioning flights. They have done their best to reduce these to the absolute minimum because obviously its in their best interest, but there comes a point where the cost of operating the facilities outweighs the cost of repositioning flights.

Also, while I opened myself up to the criticism about repositioning in my original post, the situation described in the original article is not the same as repositioning. Essentially, American doesn't operate a hangar at Heathrow with 777s on hand, yet since they had already cancelled a flight, if they did not get that plane there, they were going to have a bad situation with too many passengers and not enough seats. Since Chicago O'Hare is American's second largest hub after DFW, they did have a 777 that they could deploy in order to make sure there were enough planes for their flights from London to the US the next day. Clearly they were going to have to do an emergency repositioning of that plane regardless of whether or not there were passengers on board. So in many ways the fact that there were 5 passengers is an improvement over the zero passengers that would have made that flight if everyone had gotten on the earlier flight.

For me, despite the environmental costs, American Airlines should be getting praise for their decision rather than criticism. The airline industry has continually ignored the needs of their customers in favor of cost cutting and now when they made a decision that not only helped the 5 passengers in Chicago and probably helped hundreds more in London, they get flak from environmentalists for it. We should be encouraging airlines to make more decisions like this where they put the needs of their customers first instead of giving them crap for it.

[EarthFirst]

I'm trying to understand the logic behind some of you criticizing environmentalists. I suppose that I understand the generalization by those who only know of tie-dyed shirts and eco-terrorists, but if you hate those that love the environment, do you hate the environment? Do you walk around all day saying "damn, i hate breathing and drinking" "i hate eating plants and taking medicine" "i love money more than i love living"?

[TNRR]

That's like saying I'm racist because I don't like Obama, or sexist because I don't like Hillary.

[Fleiter]

Uh...Folks, haven't you ever heard of deadheading trains and planes. It's done all the time to move equipment into place to service customers.