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45 comments on Flying vs. driving

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TRE on October 2, 2005 - 12:06pm

Here's some info I found at IEA on energy efficiency and the transporation sector (link) and in particular take a look at figure 5.15 (link).

I've not read the whole report but it looks like something I've been wanting to check out for a while. Thanks for starting the thread on this topic.

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Yankee on October 2, 2005 - 12:17pm

Huh. In Fig 5.15, what do you think is the difference between "general aviation" and "air carrier"? I assume one is cargo?

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MikeCotton on October 2, 2005 - 12:43pm

General aviation is the umbrella term for non-airline, non-large-cargo aviation. Weekend pilots, guys running one or two plane charter services, etc. Some cargo falls into this category, but all the people you've ever heard of (FedEx, UPS, DHL, BAX, etc) don't.

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TRE on October 2, 2005 - 12:46pm

Yeah, that one confused me as well. What I've gathered so far is that "general aviation" includes small planes (e.g. two seaters, four seaters) whereas "air carrier" includes large jets. I've seen some references to "general aviation aiports" which seem to be the small ones in our backyards compared to "air carrier airports" which are the large ones associated with each city (or a couple at most).

That would probably explain why general aviation is so bad. Small planes use a lot of energy to get just a few people up in their air. I guess. Haven't thought about it enough yet.

Here's another tidbit I came across. I'm clearly not vouching for the accuracy or authenticity of these references, but they seem reasonable so I'll then people can analyze. They might lead to other sources of data as well. Check out table 4 in this reference (link)

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