Round trip travel from Tokyo to New York consumes 5,000 eu.
Of the NGO representatives who came to participate in the Third Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (held in Kyoto, Japan), there were those who came from Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway because the resulting carbon dioxide emissions would be less than if they had traveled by airplane. We don't often think about airplane fuel consumption, so let's see how much it is. As a typical example, let's think about a jumbo jet (specifically, a Boeing 747-200B). On a passenger plane, the fuel tanks are mostly contained in the main wings. It is hard to judge just by looking at them, but they actually contain 190,000 liters, or 950 oil drums worth of fuel. It's incredible that a 170-ton airplane, loaded with 150 tons of fuel can even manage to get into air.
The maximum flying distance of a jumbo jet is 11,000 kilometers, or about the distance from Tokyo to New York or Washington. If the jet is filled to capacity with passengers, (about 330 people) it comes out to 19 kilometers per liter per person or about the same fuel consumption as a passenger car with two passengers. In making the round trip from Tokyo to New York, the fuel alone calculated for one person is about 5,000 ecological units. Those of you who fly economy-class may subtract a little from that figure.
5000 eu is equivalent to the energy from food that one person would consume over the course of 14 years. That's a lot of energy to use up at one time.
For your information, according to 1995 data, the energy required to transport one person one kilometer by passenger airplane is 11.6 times that of rail (passenger cars consume about the same as airplanes). Airplanes, which hurl you to distant cities and allow you to fly across the oceans, are indispensable to modern life but it is important to understand the full significance of their use.
(Reference)
Jumbo jet information: How Do Jumbo Jets Fly? by Matao Sanuki, Kodansha's Blue-Backs Series, as well as many other documents. In reality, passenger airplanes ride on wind currents to increase speed, and carry extra fuel to allow for time spent in holding patterns and to land at an airport other than the intended destination, so actual fuel consumption is better than the figures above. Presently, the SR (Short Range) version of the 747 for domestic use in Japan is lighter due to its 40,000 liter maximum fuel capacity, and can carry more than 500 passengers. In addition, the new 747-400 has a maximum fuel capacity of 21,000 liters, can fly 13,000 kilometers, and carry 420 passengers. Fuel consumption has been improved by at least 17 percent compared to earlier versions of the 747.
Calculations were performed with jet fuel at 8,700 kcal per liter.
Energy unit requirement information: The Energy Conservation Center, Japan's 1997 Handbook of Energy and Economic Statistics in Japan, edited by EDMC. The average yearly energy requirement for passenger airplanes is 570 kcal per passenger kilometers, at least 1.2 times as bad as the example above for the jumbo jet at full passenger capacity. However, this is only 55 percent of the energy required 25 years ago.
Written by Shinji Yagi (Translation)
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