What kind of gas mileage does the average commercial airliner get?

Question

My dad was coming home from a business trip in Florida when this topic came up with my mother and myself. I looked it up and just couldn't find anything! With the rising gas prices, polluted air, and all the people in and our of airports daily, I just had to ask? How many miles per gallon does the average commercial airliner get?

Answer 1

Airlines don't really measure fuel burn in miles per gallon.  They consider passenger seats (or pounds of freight) per mile per gallon. That is... How much fuel will it take to move X number of  passengers from point A to point B.  

While it takes thousands of gallons of fuel to fly one of the bigger passenger aircraft like a 747 from point A to point B, when you consider that it may be carying up to 400 or more passengers, plus freight...  The fuel burn per passenger may be no more than it would take to drive a luxury automobile the same distance.

Answer 2

they burn around 7-9 tons per hour

Answer 3

as of 2000, the average jet airliner gave about 36 passenger-miles per gallon, according to the Transportation Energy Data Book published by the US department of energy.

Answer 4

The average airliner get about 36mpg per person, but there is a huge gap between new aircraft and old aircraft.

A new 747 uses about 0.4 pounds of fuel per pounc of thrust per hour of flight, but a older 737 might use more than 2lbs.

New engines are far far more efficient, and so new aircraft get far better mileage. A 777 gets about 70mpg per person.

A small plane like a cessna 172 gets only about 13-15mpg, not exactly great.

Answer 5

...Probably something like 5 or 6 feet per gallon...  :0