By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The second largest airline in Brazil, Gol, will give bonuses if its teams manage to save the company fuel by reducing flight times and delays, it has been revealed. The bonus program has been running since earlier this year in an attempt to counter losses of R$1.5 billion (US$749 million) suffered by the company in 2012.
All members of the company’s flight teams – from pilots and cabin crew – are eligible for the bonuses, which will be shared between teams regardless of the route they are working on, to encourage teamwork across the company.
Pedro Scorza, Director of Operations at Gol, said that monthly calculations would be used to work out the amount of fuel saved and that just a minute or two saved on flights would count towards the savings.
Gol’s initial target was to save forty seconds on each flight, equating to 700 tonnes of aviation fuel a month or R$1.9 million (approximately US$950,000), but this has been beaten in both January and February.
The company’s eighteen suggestions for economizing on time and fuel vary from switching off one of the aircraft’s engines while taxiing to the runway and using manual brakes, to using “more direct routes” and “landing in the most direct way possible,” according to G1 News.
Although some industry experts have suggested that the company’s fuel-saving strategy could lead to risks to passenger safety, neither Anac (Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency) nor Cenipa (Center for Aeronautical Accident Investigation and Prevention) have raised any concerns about the move.
R$820,000 is being put aside for each month that the targets are met, and the first bonuses are due to be paid in August. Gol is also reported to have re-evaluated the frequency of its flights to various destinations.
In March, Brazil’s major airlines joined forces to ask President Dilma Rousseff to reduce the price of kerosene in the country, as it was now accounting, on average, for 43 percent of ticket prices.
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