Originally Posted by cerewa
I read from a couple sources that jetliners got something closer to 60 passenger-miles per gallon when full (which I think puts the average flight's fuel economy at 45 passenger-miles per gallon). I believe howstuffworks.com was one source, and some airline industry group (?) was the other source.
Cerewa, I didn't believe you, so I googled some sites and found this
According to British Airways, a 747-400 plane cruises at 576 mph (927
km/h), burns 12,788 liters (3378 US gallons) of fuel per hour, and
carries 409 passengers when full:
http://www.britishairways.com/flight...ocs/7474.shtml
If the plane is 75% full, one passenger is carried 22.2 km for each
liter of fuel burned (52.2 miles for each US gallon of fuel burned).
This fuel efficiency exceeds that of almost all cars, when the driver
is travelling alone.
which proves that you would be better off flying than driving alone. If you have a 2nd passenger and a reasonably gas-economical car, the car wins... Although, staying home would have the least CO2 damage.
