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Aircraft speed and fuel usage: Empirical estimates with an exploration of environmental speed limits

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper uses a Brazilian dataset to estimate the relationship between fuel usage and speed for jet passenger aircraft. This exercise appears to be unique, with prior evidence on the fuel-speed relationship coming entirely from engineering models. The regressions generate U-shaped fuel-speed curves like those from the engineering approach, focusing on groups of narrow-body aircraft types (NEO vs. pre-NEO), rather than individual aircraft models. The empirical estimates are used to evaluate the desirability of environmental aircraft speed limits, which would force planes to fly at a speed that minimizes fuel usage, thereby reducing carbon emissions but imposing longer flight times on passengers.

Source: Research in Transportation Economics

DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2025.101655

Authors: Jan K. Brueckner, Chrystyane Abreu

Institution: University of California, Irvine

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,430