U.S. Domestic Airline Fuel Efficiency Ranking 2010
A new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), finds that Alaska Airlines is the most fuel efficient domestic airliner, while Allegiant Air is the least fuel-efficient, among 15 domestic air carriers operating in the U.S. in 2010. In other words, of the 15 airlines analyzed, Allegiant Airlines generates the most greenhouse gas emissions to provide a comparable level of service.
The International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit research organization, used publicly available data to compare the efficiency of the airlines independent of size, network structure, or type of service.
The figure highlights the large gap between the most and least efficient airlines serving the U.S. domestic market. The analysis found that Allegiant would have used 26 percent more fuel than Alaska Airlines to provide a comparable level of transport service.
In addition to Alaska Airlines, Spirit, Hawaiian, Continental, Southwest, Frontier and JetBlue all scored above the industry average for fuel efficiency, according to the study. United Airlines was at the industry average, while Virgin America, Sun Country, Delta, US Airways AirTran, American Airlines and Allegiant scored below the average.
ICCT attributes about one-third of the variation in fuel efficiency to more efficient aircraft designs and aircraft technologies, such as winglets and high bypass ratio engines.
Other factors include:
- seating density and percent seat occupancy;
- load factor (the number of passenger miles traveled as a percentage of seat miles available);
- operational practices such as fuel loading/tankering and single-engine taxiing; and
- route circuity (the total number of passenger miles traveled divided by the number of intended, or “productive,” passenger miles).
The full study is available here from ICCT.
Do you consider the carbon footprint of your travel choices?
Holy cow! No, i don’t have the luxury of choosing carriers. most of my travel destinations are only served by 1 or 2 carriers.
Which airlines serve your airport?