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Your private air travel options are growing
If you’ve got the money, very light jets can ease your commuting headaches
Blair Watson, Aviation via MSNBC News
With the advent of very light jets (VLJs), people in the United States have more choice in terms of private air travel than ever before.
Travelers can fly to thousands of airports in aircraft that accommodate as few as three passengers (in the case of some VLJs) or as many as 80 passengers (in corporate versions of airliners). Options include air taxi, jet card, and charter services, and fractional, shared and full aircraft ownership.
… As new technologies emerge, the choices will surely increase.
(16 April 2008)
Like Motorists, Airlines Are Reducing Their Speed to Save Fuel Costs
Associated Press
Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more miles to the gallon. Now airlines are trying it – adding a few minutes to flights to save millions on fuel.
Southwest Airlines started flying more slowly about two months ago, and projects that it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.
On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis this week, flying at an average speed of 532 miles an hour instead of the usual 542 m.p.h. saved 162 gallons of fuel, worth $535. It added 8 minutes to the flight, extending it to 8 hours, 58 minutes.
(2 May 2008)
The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be
Clark Williams-Derry, Sightline
Washington transportation officials are overestimating the growth in vehicle travel.
Ok, this is weird. Washington’s transportation department thinks that vehicle travel is going to go up up up. See, for example, this graph…
… The solid red line to the left represents historic traffic volumes — technically, vehicle miles travelled, or “VMT” in planner-speak. The dashed line to the right is a prediction of future VMT growth.
But look: there’s something awfully suspicious about these predictions.
If you close one eye and tilt your head to one side, you’ll see that the dotted line is much steeper than the solid line. In the real world, traffic growth has slowed way down in recent years, and looks like it’s on the verge of flattening out. A closer look at the numbers (pdf link) tells the same story: the recent slowdown in vehicle travel has been pretty remarkable. As oil prices have soared, the growth in vehicle travel has slowed; and travel per capita has actually fallen.
But the reality of rising fuel costs hasn’t sunk in to the planning department. Instead, they’re predicting a massive, immediate increase in the growth rate of traffic, starting next year.
… My money — that is, my tax dollars — is actually being spent, right now, based on the assumption that WashDOT’s predictions are accurate. You see, these projections aren’t just an academic exercise. They’re being used to argue for new roads, increased traffic capacity, and all the trappings of a car-dominated transportation system.
(21 April 2008)
