Print icon

Table 4-21: Energy Intensity of Certificated Air Carriers, All Servicesa

Excel | CSV

  1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 (R) 1996 (R) 1997 (R) 1998 (R) 1999 (R) 2000 (R) 2001 (R) 2002 (R) 2003 (R) 2004 (R) 2005 (R) 2006 (R) 2007 (R) 2008 (R) 2009 2010
Aircraft-miles (millions)                                                      
Domestic operations 858 1,134 2,068 1,638 2,276 3,026 3,963 3,854 3,995 4,156 4,378 4,628 4,807 4,437 4,480 4,774 5,089 5,110 5,230 5,896 6,366 6,529 6,423 6,534 6,247 5,757 5,807
International operations 182 284 475 334 334 415 760 807 904 958 975 998 1,103 1,160 1,256 1,294 1,385 1,373 1,348 1,426 1,592 1,723 1,798 1,881 1,895 1,778 1,859
Available seat-miles (millions)                                                      
Domestic operations 52,220 94,787 213,160 215,275 326,734 452,756 570,558 551,562 567,040 582,122 598,150 616,459 616,047 634,883 638,426 676,271 702,693 684,279 670,963 685,283 736,888 744,058 730,996 747,064 717,502 669,856 678,040
International operations 13,347 29,533 51,960 64,138 84,514 110,578 182,652 186,468 205,829 211,831 211,109 215,623 228,523 234,777 244,203 251,722 266,449 256,312 235,746 235,508 263,304 285,258 296,520 313,015 323,312 305,431 313,848
Passenger-miles (millions)                                                      
Domestic operations 30,557 51,887 104,147 119,591 190,766 275,864 345,873 338,085 354,764 362,227 388,410 403,912 419,282 439,263 449,104 473,082 500,440 473,627 472,361 498,181 548,594 573,627 577,582 595,331 570,922 541,646 555,642
International operations 8,306 16,789 27,563 34,864 53,932 73,237 126,363 125,211 138,950 143,766 149,108 154,882 166,463 173,128 176,625 185,836 200,370 184,944 178,232 175,996 203,748 221,490 232,518 246,675 252,844 238,336 253,394
Fuel consumed (million gallons)                                                      
Domestic operations 1,954 3,889 7,857 7,558 8,519 10,115 12,212 11,360 11,598 11,960 12,501 12,812 13,187 13,658 13,303 14,491 14,865 13,868 12,922 13,082 14,091 13,976 13,694 13,682 12,686 11,339 11,256
International operations 566 1,280 2,243 1,949 1,747 2,488 3,938 3,888 4,079 4,112 4,325 4,511 4,658 4,962 4,915 5,277 5,508 5,336 5,079 5,219 5,592 5,975 6,018 6,205 6,187 5,721 6,028
Seats per aircraft                                                      
Domestic operations 60.9 83.6 103.1 131.5 143.6 149.6 144.0 143.1 141.9 140.1 136.6 133.2 128.2 143.1 142.5 141.7 138.1 133.9 128.3 116.2 115.8 114.0 113.8 114.3 114.9 116.4 116.8
International operations 73.3 104.0 109.4 192.1 252.7 266.2 240.2 231.2 227.6 221.1 216.4 216.1 207.1 202.4 194.5 194.6 192.4 186.7 174.8 165.1 165.3 165.5 164.9 166.4 170.6 171.8 168.8
Seat-miles per gallon                                                      
Domestic operations 26.7 24.4 27.1 28.5 38.4 44.8 46.7 48.6 48.9 48.7 47.8 48.1 46.7 46.5 48.0 46.7 47.3 49.3 51.9 52.4 52.3 53.2 53.4 54.6 56.6 59.1 60.2
International operations 23.6 23.1 23.2 32.9 48.4 44.4 46.4 48.0 50.5 51.5 48.8 47.8 49.1 47.3 49.7 47.7 48.4 48.0 46.4 45.1 47.1 47.7 49.3 50.4 52.3 53.4 52.1
Energy intensity (Btu/passenger-mile)                                                      
Domestic operations 8,633 10,118 10,185 8,532 6,029 4,950 4,767 4,536 4,413 4,457 4,345 4,282 4,246 4,197 3,999 4,135 4,010 3,953 3,693 3,545 3,467 3,289 3,201 3,103 3,000 2,826 2,735
International operations 9,199 10,292 10,986 7,547 4,374 4,586 4,207 4,192 3,963 3,861 3,916 3,932 3,778 3,869 3,757 3,833 3,711 3,895 3,847 4,003 3,705 3,642 3,494 3,396 3,303 3,241 3,211
Load factor (percent)                                                      
Domestic operations 58.5 54.7 48.9 55.6 58.4 60.9 60.6 61.3 62.6 62.2 64.9 65.5 68.1 69.2 70.3 70.0 71.2 69.2 70.4 72.7 74.4 77.1 79.0 79.7 79.6 80.9 81.9
International operations 62.2 56.8 53.0 54.4 63.8 66.2 69.2 67.1 67.5 67.9 70.6 71.8 72.8 73.7 72.3 73.8 75.2 72.2 75.6 74.7 77.4 77.6 78.4 78.8 78.2 78.0 80.7

KEY: Btu = British thermal unit; R = revised.

a U.S. owned carriers only. Operations of foreign-owned carriers in or out of the United States not included.

NOTES

Aircraft-miles include all four large certificated air-carrier groups (majors, nationals, large regionals, and medium regionals), scheduled and charter, passenger, and all-cargo. Fuel consumed includes majors, nationals, and large regionals, scheduled and charter, passenger, and all-cargo.

Passenger-miles include all four large certificated air-carrier groups, scheduled and charter, passenger service only.

International operations include operations outside the United States, including those between the United States and foreign countries and the United States and its territories or possessions.

Load factor: Ratio of Passenger-miles to Available seat-miles.

Heat equivalent factor used for Btu conversion is 135,000 Btu/gallon.

SOURCES

Aircraft-miles, available seat-miles, and passenger-miles:

1960-70: Air Transport Association, available at http://www.air-transport.org/ as of July 31, 2002.

1975-1995: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, T1: U.S. Air Carrier Traffic and Capacity Summary by Service Class, available at http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Fields.asp?Table_ID=264 as of Dec. 15, 2010.

1996-2010: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Airline Information, Air Carrier Traffic Statistics, available at http://www.bts.gov/xml/air_traffic/src/index.xml#CustomizeTable as of Aug. 18, 2011.

Fuel consumed:

U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Office of Airline Information, Airline Fuel Cost and Consumption, available at http://www.transtats.bts.gov/fuel.asp as of Aug. 18, 2011.

Seats per aircraft, seat-miles per gallon, energy intensiveness and load factor:

Derived by calculation.




RITA's privacy policies and procedures do not necessarily apply to external web sites.
We suggest contacting these sites directly for information on their data collection and distribution policies.