British Airways To Offer Pilots Bonus For Burning Less Fuel: Smart Or Risky?

Only the most naughty will be getting a diversion! I think this fuel saving incentive plan had been similarly used before for other airlines

Get-there-ititus will be at an all time high

Great initiative in theory but I'd rather have my pilots focus on safety than hitting their next bonus target.

What could possibly go wrong…
*SAS almost takes off on taxiway*
Can also be called move-the-metal

A few other concerns:

Pilots trying to fly through rough weather rather than around it

Delaying departure if there are currently waits for takeoff expected to dissipate

"Well folks, we can't make up some time this evening, the FO and I don't want to lose our bonuses."

They fly into Heathrow a lot. Coming from the other side of the pond you spend a lot of time overflying the English countryside in lazy racetrack formations before you get permission to enter the landing queue. Not much they can do about that unless BA changes its hub airport, and that is not likely. Not sure how you quantify the 1% number if there are schedule changes from year to year. Sounds like it would have to be carefully negotiated by the pilots otherwise they might spend a lot of time planning and receive very little for it.

Justin, wrong assumption old bean. Ask Mr Google if you are unconvinced.

That’s rich, considering LHR is the only major hub where you can expect a 10-15min holding pattern for every arrival.

Every good captain I fly with adds 5,000 pounds of fuel to whatever dispatch planned for us. Cutting safety margins for an extra $5k at the end of the year won’t change that practice.

Respect.

So would they think twice before going around when landing on an occupied runway?

BA has ridiculous fuel surcharges during normal times (when oil was cheap) that they can't raise them anymore when oil goes up - and have to resort to shutting off the engines 20 minutes before landing (joking here but you get the point).

The three likely ways this will happen - 1) single engine taxis (already widespread at BA I'm sure) 2) increased use of Vertical speed mode rather then open climb/descent (airbus) or flight level change mode (Boeing) to smooth out descents and climbs and make them more continuous, and 3) happy to fly at a lower mach number (maybe even selecting a lower mach number vs what the cost index is set to) rather then manually increasing the speed suring cruise

I’ve witnessed similar efforts decades ago during previous fuel crisis..

Arguments between captains and flight dispatchers about carrying extra fuel.
Pilots arguing as captain ordered the airplane be defuelled.
Fuel that had been offloaded, had to be secured and not returned to the farm tanks due to contamination concerns and only could be offloaded onto tanker trucks, and only given to other company aircraft.

Pilots employing inventive techniques..
Those that don’t know the history are destined to relearn.
That old pilot adage that says learn from the lessons of others

Start the descent from 100 miles out and glide, rather than powering into a 30 mile TOD combined with a steep descent.

So BA flights arrive late as pilots get incentivized to save fuel beginning 2027? So in addition to losing bags and putting up with surly security at LHR transfers your flight arrives late?? Only BA!

Not even RyanAir is this cheap. It's like BA and Lufthansa are in a competition to see who can be the worst flag carrier in Europe.

I look at this like I'd look at my taxi driver getting such an incentive. I don’t want to be traveling down the highway at 45mph.

Fact Chiffy, both BA and LH are streets ahead of the nearest U.S. carrier in the World Rankings don’t you know sunshine? Not a good look bumping your gums out of gross ignorance, yes? …. 🙂

Absolutely RD, BA may have the odd challenge (like all World Class players at this time) but by comparison with the U.S. offerings, it is exemplary don’t you know! …. 🙂

I was Once on a Lufthansa flight, where to save fuel they turned off the cabin air intakes. I was literally suffocating after half an hour - I'm asthmatic so I'm sensitive. - and I will not fly Lufthansa again as a result. Sounds like that's going to happen on BA.

BK and DL are spot on. Ben, I’ll be waiting for the article on a BA flight diverting due to low fuel. It’s been tried before and there’s always one Captain that will go overboard. They they don’t cost of one divert will negate a lot of savings.

The cost of

aviation disasters did an episode on this issue. pilots did not want to do a go around partly bc of bonuses related to fuel savings (in indonesia I recall) well… it didn’t end well and the correction was getting rid of the fuel savings bonus at the airline.
this seems like a really stupid idea to go and repeat

Are their Dispatchers also going to get a bonus if they plan less fuel on the flights they are responsible for? In the US the captain and dispatcher share joint authority for each flight they are assigned. The dispatch release and the fuel plan are usually completed at least 90 minutes prior to departure and are released into the system about 70-75 minutes before departure. In many cases the aircraft will be fueled before the captain has pulled up his or her release. If you want to save fuel you would be better off giving your dispatcher’s a fuel saving bonus rather than your flight crews.

All of these comments are hilarious. No, pilots won't suddenly start flying slow or cutting corners. However it could disincentivise extra fuel carriage in excess of minimums for holding.

The bigger problem is this incentive is wrapped up into a paydeal so it's a vote on all or nothing. The rest of the deal is toilet.

“If you turn off the engines at 40,000 you can glide a long way before you have to turn them back on again.”

Shouldn’t the pilots be doing that all along?

Lace all airport food with horse laxatives to reduce the overall passenger weight.