On 3/25/2023 5:36 AM, Julian Reschke wrote:
On 25.03.2023 11:48, Andrew McConachie wrote:
...
Trains and planes are fundamentally different in this regard, because
planes calculate their weight at takeoff and only take as much fuel as
they need. The amount of CO2 produced by a passenger plane is directly
proportional to how many passengers it’s carrying.
...
So a passenger plane not carrying any passengers is not producing any CO2?
I think Andrew erred when he said "directly proportional". As in many
things, you can probably separate fixed costs and variable costs. There
is a fixed cost to carrying the whole weight of the empty plane and the
crew through the sky. There is also a variable cost based on the load of
the plane, which for a passenger plane means the weight of passengers
and their luggage. So yes, an additional passenger directly increases
the fuel consumption of the plane -- but less so than if too few
passengers lead the airline to fly fewer planes. And the "fewer plane"
effect is entirely comparable to the "fewer trains" effect.
-- Christian Huitema
