Fuel costs are one of the largest, most variable airline expenses, representing between 15 and 20 percent of total expenses, according to Airline Financial Data from BTS.
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With today's fuel prices, it costs about $450,000 to fill up a Boeing 747, depending on your market. By contrast, the Gulfstream G280, a popular business aviation aircraft, costs around $8,000 to fill.
At one time, gasoline was used in airplanes. But the need for a higher energy fuel made the aviation industry look for alternative fuels. With a Boeing 747 burning up to one gallon of fuel every second, it's lucky that kerosene-based jet fuel is cheaper than gasoline!
Airlines are in business to make money and even though they may be on the receiving end of government bailouts from time to time, the bulk of their revenue comes from travelers. Aside from the cost of tickets themselves, airlines can also collect fees from passengers that help to add to their profit margins.
Instead, they're paid an hourly wage for each flight hour flown, along with per diem. Most airlines guarantee a minimum number of hours per month, so that pilots can count on at least a minimum amount of monthly income.
A pilot will choose to dump fuel only on very rare occasions. Brickhouse: Unless you have a medical emergency on board, someone is dying, you don't really have time to fly around and burn fuel. So, in that case that's when you would dump fuel so that you can lose weight quickly.
This is because landing can place additional strain on a jet. When a plane lands heavily, it can hit the ground too hard and damage itself. During an emergency, a jet may be forced to land earlier than anticipated. This is where fuel dumping comes into play.
The most common is by referring to a generic “operating cost per flight hour” figure. Most of the (extremely) generic references I've seen using that metric for a Boeing 747–400 are in the US$25,000 per hour range.