Originally Posted by
Steve M
I guess another way to state my question is that under normal conditions, how much below maximum landing weight is a typical flight expected to arrive? I'd be surprised if it was 0 lbs (that is, that all flights are expected to arrive right at maximum weight) unless there is some other factor, such as a large variance in cargo that can be loaded.
Messages crossing in the mail here...
The answer is that it varies, not just between different types of aircraft, but also between different variants of the same type.
At one airline I used to dispatch for, we had numerous 737-200 variants that had max structural landing weights ranging from 98.0, 103.0, 105.0, and 107.0, and the resultant weight "spread" between fully-loaded flights and the aircraft's max landing weight was far less on the 98.0 birds than it was on the 107.0-capable birds. As a result, we had lots more payload-versus-fuel issues on the former than we did on the latter.
The "spread" could be as little as 1.0 to 2.0 up to 5.0 or 6.0, again depending upon the variant. If the destination required more fuel for longer holding, or a more-distant alternate, that additional fuel weight would come out of the "spread", and if that didn't fully cover it, payload would have to be reduced, meaning some stuff would have to stay behind. Unfortunately, that sometimes included passengers.