Aeroplanes are huge! Flying is bad for the environment. But how much actual fuel, compared to say filling up the car, do you consume on a typical flight?
We are bombarded with news stories about climate breakdown. We can see the change in our weather for ourselves. Our every action seems to be perpetuate the problem. Many of us are now doing what we can to minimize our carbon footprint. Switching to electric for personal transport and home heating. Eating less meat. Traveling by bike instead of car. The unspoken secret hiding in plain view is that these are actually not great hardships, every one is a net improvement to quality of life.
Air travel is different though. Removing this from our lives could be a huge loss. The very pinnacles of our lives - the family holiday, the city break, the change of scenery & routine, a brief immersion in a life on foreign shores - all become something we may have to do without. Yes, rail is a wonderful and superior mode of transport, but anyone living in the United Kingdom will testify to how deranged the service is.
So, I started thinking, how much fuel am I actually using on a flight from say Glasgow to Malaga in the south of Spain? An aeroplane is so massive, but then so many people travel together, maybe my fuel portion is not as bad as I was one might assume.
Well check out my calculations below based on an Airbus A320. First some baseline numbers for our calculation:
Airbus A320 Capacity
| Measure | Unit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel Capacity | litres | 27200 |
| Seats | seat | 180 |
| Range fully fuelled | miles | 3850 |
Airline fuel costs in Nov 2026
| Measure | Unit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel price (Nov 2026) | $/barrel | 180 |
| Litres per barrel | litres | 160 |
| Airline fuel price | $/litre | 1.13 |
Flight cost and fuel breakdown on Glasgow to Malaga flight
Now let's crunch the numbers:
| Measure | Unit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Flight distance | miles | 1320 |
| A320 fuel capacity required | % | 34% |
| Fuel required | litres | 9326 |
| Fuel per passenger | litres | 52 |
| Fuel cost per passenger | $ | 58 |
The Weekly Fill-up at the petrol pump
On a typical Ford Mondeo 2L car:
| Measure | Unit | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel tank capacity | litres | 60 |
| Range fully fueled | miles | 800 |
Conclusion
I consume the same volume of fuel on this flight as I would use on a typical refill at the petrol station, 52 litres versus 60 litres. There are many ways to interpret this fact, but the data is there. And I think it helps to give it some perspective in relative terms that are more meaningful. Running our inner tally of carbon expenditure versus essential value, we can each calculate the pay-off.