If You Think Your SUV is a Gas Guzzler, Try Fueling Up a 737

If saving jet fuel were only as easy as taking a shortcut at 35,000 feet, the airlines might not be in so much trouble.

But things being as they are, the price of oil is choking the U.S. airline industry.

Crude oil is up 41 percent over last year — the main reason the industry lost $2.2 billion in the first quarter.

Those upward ticks are monumental, which is why airlines are doing everything they can to trim their fuel bills. For every penny increase in the price of a gallon of jet fuel, the airlines expect to see their 2005 fuel costs climb at least $25 million — or more.
The Star-Ledger