Cost Savings? Not Really.

FAA’s justification for these environmental impacts centers on reducing fuel burn by shortened departure routes. Fuel savings were exaggerated during the proposal evaluation, and the exaggeration was later confirmed by FAA itself.

As claimed by FAA in April 2013, the table below predicts an annual fuel cost-savings between $6M and $16M. But, the estimates were based on an inflated fuel cost of $2.96 per gallon. Real savings, at today’s fuel prices (which are substantially reduced for airlines) would be well under $10M per year.

(click on image to view at pg. 86 of the 90-pg PDF source document)

In their Post-Implementation Report of April 2015, FAA quantified fuel cost-savings at just $3 million per year. This point was one many NextGen failures identified by the airport authority in their flyer, ‘FAA’s NextGen Failure: a Case Study in Phoenix’./24