Fuel Costs
The improved visibility and availability of the GLSS will allow planes to be parked quickly. This adds up to real savings in terms of fuel cost from planes idling that are waiting to be parked.
Over the course of one year, five-hundred daily DC-9 landings that wait for just one minute to park will cost nearly 3 million dollars in fuel alone!
(500 landings/day x 365 days) x $15.96 cost idling/minute = $2,912,700 annual idling cost/minute
The following table depicts the idling cost per minute of various airplanes:
| AIRPLANE | FUEL BURN IN POUNDS PER MINUTE | GALS x | # OF ENGINES | COST OF FUEL | IDLING COST PER MINUTE | |||||||
| BOEING 747 | 75 | 9.80 x 4 = 39.92 gals per min. | $3.50 | $139.72 | ||||||||
| DC- 10 | 50 | 7.65 x 3 = 22.95 gals.per.min. | $3.50 | $80.33 | ||||||||
| BOEING 757 | 40 | 5.71 x 2 = 11.42 gals.per.min | $3.50 | $39.97 | ||||||||
| A- 330 | 20 | 2.85 x 2 = 5.7 gals. Per. Min. | $3.50 | $19.95 | ||||||||
| DC-9 | 16 | 2.28 x 2 = 4.56 gals per.min | $3.50 | $15.96 | ||||||||
Flashlight usage and battery consumption
At one North American hub, there are about 572 flights per day with 75% of these flights landing during hours of darkness.
There are approximately 75 gates with 6 wands on each gate for the purpose of marshalling airplanes.
This totals 420 flashlights and 2520 batteries for this operation every day of the year.
For the airlines to buy this amount of batteries they must buy in huge amounts which require storage and then delivery to the ramp.
The average time batteries life in this situation is about 3 to 4 days. The cost of this operation in a yearly total is staggering.
Cost of flashlights:
75 gates x 6 flashlights = 420 flashlights x $ 5.00 = $2,100.00
Cost of batteries per replacement(every 4 days):
420 flashlights x 6 batteries = 2520 x $.30/battery = $ 756
Cost of batteries replacement per year:
91 replacements/year x $756 = $68,796.00
storage of batteries = ?
disposal of batteries = ?
theft of batteries and flashlights = ?
These figures are for just one airport with 75 gates !!!
v The GLSS is built with long-lasting components which reduces the need for maintenance.