SriLankan Airlines has climbed to eighth position globally in IATA fuel efficiency ranking amongst 51 airlines in the same business model, following the implementation of a wide range of fuel efficiency and conservation measures over the last 22 months to reduce fuel burn.
The 2016 ranking of airlines by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has placed SriLankan eighth with an efficiency rating of 34.86Ltr/100RTK (liters per 100 revenue ton kilometers). The IATA benchmark for the year 2016 is 35.26Ltr/100RTK. This is a significant improvement over its performance in calendar year 2015 when it ranked 15th with a rating of 36.25Ltr/100RTK.
Fuel Saving Initiative by the Pilots
Due to the efforts and skills of its Pilots, SriLankan Airlines achieved a saving of over US$2.3 million, when comparing the planned Fuel burn-off, against the actual in 22 months from August 2015 to June 2017.
Fuel is the largest cost component for any airline, and with increasing fuel prices the actions of our pilots help in reducing our operational costs.
SriLankan’s fuel saving efforts are driven by a specialized Aviation Fuel Department in the Flight Operations Division, which constantly seeks new and innovative methods to reduce fuel usage whilst maintaining the highest safety standards and monitors the implementation of existing fuel conservation measures. These include many IATA recommended initiatives, Airbus and Industry best practice recommendations, at the planning stage and inflight. Flying on direct routes whenever possible, optimizing flight levels to fly at the most fuel-efficient altitudes, maximum usage of engine reverse thrust when landing, taxi-in with single engine after landing and optimizing the usage of auxiliary power unit, are some of the techniques used during flights. The Aviation Fuel Department provides a fuel report to every Captain on a monthly basis, which gives them a better understanding of their fuel uplifts and savings, for possible improvement.
All other stakeholders such as Inflight, Engineering, Cargo, Product Development, Flight Dispatch and Ground Services have contributed towards these achievements by improving their processes at the planning stage.
