With fuel representing the lion’s share of a business aircraft’s operating costs–up to 70 percent according to some calculations–reducing the cost of fuel purchases remains one of the most salient ways for an operator to save money. With today’s more efficient, longer-range aircraft, operators can take advantage of differences in regional fuel pricing more often by topping off their tanks where fuel is cheaper, to the extent that increased burn penalty allows.

“The concept of tankering has long been in the aviation handbook,” said Kevin Moller, CEO of California-based fuel pricing software provider FuelerLinx. “But the ability to achieve the greatest cost savings by tankering each time you plan a trip has never existed until now.”

To help operators find the best fuel prices, FuelerLinx has partnered with Denmark-based flight-planning engine Aviation Cloud to enhance the multi-leg tankering calculator function available in its subscription fuel-pricing service. FuelerLinx previously had a rudimentary system in place that based its calculations solely on Great Circle routing and with no winds-aloft information. The improved calculator–now with a flight-planning component–incorporates data such as airways, real-time weather and vertical profiles for every business jet flying today, and provides regularly updated fuel pricing, volume price breaks at more than 700 locations around the country and minimum upload to avoid ramp fees.

“It will calculate the maintenance cost per minute and what we call the tankering burn-off percentage–the cost of carrying extra fuel to altitude,” Moller told AIN. “It will take into account all those variables.” According to the company, the system quickly aggregates data, based on user input and individually customized contract fuel pricing, to help users avoid having to deal directly with FBOs or take on fuel at each stop, thus simplifying flight planning for a multi-leg trip.

“The tankering calculations have proved invaluable to our cost-saving efforts,” said Karen Brunsman, flight coordinator for FuelerLinx subscriber NextEra Energy, which operates a pair of Citations and Falcons. “It allows us to take the optimal amount of fuel at each stop for the least amount of money overall.”

As an example, FuelerLinx provided a multi-leg flight plan prepared for a Global Express, with stops at Denver, Teterboro, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco. Basing its calculations on known pricing, estimated fuel burn and consumption rate, the system recommends the optimal uplift amounts for each stop, in this case avoiding the higher jet-A prices at Teterboro, Chicago and San Francisco. Following the suggestions of the calculator would save the aircraft operator nearly $7,400 for the flight, according to FuelerLinx.

On-the-Fly Calculations

“The benefit of using our tankering function is to determine quickly and concisely your optimized fuel upload to save the most amount of money possible when flying,” said Moller, adding that the feature helps remove much of the guesswork ahead of a trip, even for those who might not be well versed in operations. “It allows someone without flight-planning knowledge to calculate accurately how much fuel to upload along the route of flight.”

Even if the itinerary changes, the software can compensate on the fly. “If an operator cancels a planned leg of any trip and substitutes it with another location, the tankering software can immediately handle the revised entries,” said Moller, noting the system’s internal communications feature. “The previously planned locations are notified that the aircraft will not be taking fuel, and the newly identified locations are alerted that the aircraft intends to uplift fuel.”