Northwest Airlines aims to achieve $12.7 million in fuel savings this year, and is employing a number of new initiatives to ensure it meets its target.
Among the new initiatives, Northwest ground crews in February tested and adopted the use of wireless SafeTrac scanners for submitting load information planeside, providing the flight crew with timely load numbers on domestic flights, says Northwest in an employee newsletter dated June 21, the carrier
Delays in submitting passenger and baggage/cargo load numbers to the flight crew can lead to an unnecessary fuel burn because the flight crew delays taxiing out while waiting for the information.
Using SafeTrac resulted in an improvement in load timeliness, says the carrier. Northwest’s Detroit and Memphis hubs adopted this procedural change in April and May, resulting in further improvements. The annual fuel savings at the two hubs is projected to be about $790,000.
Evaluation of the process change is underway for spoke stations, says Northwest.
Additionally, the carrier says that using single-engine taxi out procedures have driven cost savings. In May of last year, Northwest pilots of Airbus A319s and A320s joined their McDonnell Douglas DC-9 counterparts in using a single engine to taxi out whenever contingent field conditions are met.
The single-engine taxi initiatives are projected to save about $996,000 annually in fuel costs.
Northwest also says it is using an onboard flight-management computer (FMC) on all Boeing 757-300 flights to Hawaii.
The FMC makes small adjustments in speed, and calculates climb, cruise and descent speeds to achieve the desired fuel economy. Although the Hawaii flights now take four minutes longer, Northwest expects to save roughly $600,000 per year.
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Source: FlightGlobal.com
