ASAP News - May 02, 2008

As airlines continue to try and find ways to remain viable and profitable in a world where their most important expenditure, fuel, is hitting record prices almost on a weekly basis, they’re having to get creative. The latest in a wave of reports on how airlines are managing to cope with the $120 oil barrel, some carriers are slowing down flights in a bid to economise gas.

The routes aren’t suffering drastically for it, and a recent flight from Minneapolis and Paris saved $535 by adding eight minutes onto the flight time. JetBlue’s Dave Fuller says, “It’s not a dramatic change,” noting that JetBlue began flying slower almost two years ago. Adding four minutes to the airline’s flights between the continental US and Hawaii saves over $600,000 a year. One American flyer says, “Anything that helps the airlines, you know, because they’re going bankrupt left and right. Anything that helps them out will probably be good for the industry in the long term.”

Source: http://www.asap.co.uk/news/airlines-slow-down-to-save-fuel-5632748.html