How does "Fuel Dumping" work?
Recently, I saw a lot of blog post, forum posts etc on Fuel Dumping. For me it seemed like you can book a flight with high fuel charges, and then add another unrelated leg to the flight that you not plan to use to get rid of the high fuel charges. However, I could not find any concrete explanation on how fuel dumping works.
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How does fuel dumping work?
When an aircraft decides to dump fuel at altitude, the pilots flick a switch in the cockpit, and pumps push the fuel out of nozzles in the wings. The fuel disperses over a wide enough area that the particles evaporate into a fine mist.What causes fuel dumping?
The reason to dump fuel is simple: to drop weight. Any given aircraft has a Maximum Landing Weight (MLW) at which it can land, and in most cases that weight is lower than its Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW).Do airplanes dump fuel in the air?
In most cases, airlines only dump air in midair immediately before landing. They don't do it before or during takeoff, nor do they do it halfway through their flight. Rather, airlines may dump some of their airplane's excess fuel immediately before landing so that it lowers the weight of their aircraft.Do airplanes dump fuel before they land?
A Very Practical Solution Airplane fuel can be quite heavy, sometimes weighing as much as 6 pounds a gallon. If an airplane holds 5,000 gallons of fuel, that can add up to 30,000 lbs. to the plane's weight. In fact, lowering its weight is the main reason why airplanes dump fuel right before landing.Why do PILOTS DUMP FUEL??? Explained by CAPTAIN JOE
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Prateek Katyal, Aleksandar Pasaric, Thirdman, Anna Tarazevich