Quick question. With the new aircraft performance system update, will it be possible to easily compare the performance of two different aircraft on the same segment without flying it. For example, if my fleet has both A320's and the 737-800's, if I create a new route from KJFK to KTPA, would I be able to see the forecasted difference in fuel consumption. Currently we can see the changes in travel time concretely, but performance calculations are more opaque. Similarly, in terms of the performance deterioration over time - will that information be available also?
I guess the broad question is what components of the new system will be visible to the user and which will be under the hood. Obviously I understand the desire to protect the detailed information that so much effort has been spent both by Sami and the community, but some clarity in regards to the impact some components have would be helpful.
Specifically:
* Average fuel use by plane type in the create route page (so if I change from A320 to 738 I can see the difference). Currently, we can impute this after the fact by looking at the fuel costs by segment, but seeing it advance I think is helpful. Providing this number in aggregate rather than all stages is adequate. I understand that this varies by the actual cargo carried (less PAX/cargo, less fuel) and distance (less distance, filling the fuel tanks to the brim is not necessary), but something to compare fuel performance by segment would be helpful. I think this would also help provide some transparency into discrepancies around the fuel calculations. Today, some people complain that a certain aircraft type performs better/worse than it should. Very possibly this is caused by a different average stage length assumption in the average fuel provided by AWS. Thus providing this information would be helpful. For example, per the manual the average stage length for VL aircraft is 4000NM. However, if I have a 767-200ER and a 340-200 (or pick another variant) and want to see relative fuel usage of both on a 6200NM stage could that be done PRIOR to flying the route. This would help in optimal aircraft selection as well.
* Current engine performance deterioration - if it's linear between 0 and 5% than it's probably not a big deal, but if the deterioration curve is non-linear or varies by aircraft type, it would be helpful to know what the value is.
Additionally, does this mean that hot and high altitude variants will have more of a place in AWS as the take-off performance will be more accurately estimated?
Thanks for the hard work Sami, this looks like a really meaningful improvement in terms of precision. Thumbs up from me.
