(Editor's note:  On April 21, 2009 the following message was sent to Robert Deluce, CEO of Porter Airlines by Brian Iler, chair of CommunityAIR.)

Bob – once again you were quoted today saying: “But the big plus is that it burns 30 - 40% less fuel than do comparable narrow-bodied regional jets.”

How’s that?

This UK site: http://www.flybe.com/pdf/eco_labels_make_own.pdf uses ICAO emissions data.

Fuel efficiency correlates directly with CO2 emissions, of course.

While, for takeoff and landing emissions, and fuel consumption, the Q400 is half the size as jets used in short haul flights like the Airbus 319 and Boeing 737, it is absolutely in line with them for CO2 emissions on a passenger seat basis for a 500km flight:

 Here is Flybe’s analysis:

·         Standard Q400 with 78 seats: Total fuel consumed 1044kg  and CO2 emitted/passenger 42 kg

·         Porter Q400 with 70 seats owing to the short runway at the Island Airport: Total fuel consumed 1044kg  and CO2 emitted /passenger 46.8 kg – higher owing to the reduced number of seats

·         Airbus 319 with 156 seats: Total fuel consumed1961 kg  and CO2 emitted /passenger: 40

·         Boeing 737-300 with 149 seats: Total fuel consumed 2002kg and CO2 emitted /passenger: 42

 These per passenger figures assume 100% of the seats are filled.

What these figures say is that your Q400s are more than 11% LESS fuel-efficient than competitor jets.

Highly fuel INEFFICIENT, no?

Your thoughts?

(No response to this message was received from Robert Deluce.  Iler comments as follows.)

This was sent to Porter CEO Bob Deluce last April. We have not had the courtesy of a response.

But since then, Deluce has ceased to laud the fuel efficiency of his planes. A coincidence?

We note that Bombardier’s website “Q400 Green Machine” [http://www.q400.com/q400/en/green.jsp] claims  30-40% less emissions – presumably the source for Deluce’s declarations:

“Each Bombardier Q400 aircraft produces 30-40% less emissions on routes where it has replaced similar capacity older generation and/or 50-seat jet aircraft.“

In other words, the Q400 is cleaner than older  and smaller aircraft – by a lot (IF we re to believe Bombardier – the actual data is not available on their website). But, as Flybe’s data below show, compared to modern jet aircraft in competition with the Q400, it is, in fact LESS efficient.

And as we understand that Porter’s planes are, on average, less than half full, compared to its competitors who have load factors in the high 70% or more, Porter’s greenhouse gas emissions are far greater than its Pearson-based competition.