NZWN 25/03/2007

[Charl]

I'm told it is to save fuel. See Richard Branson is lobbying to have Virgin towed out to the runway hold short, no engines 'til takeoff clearance!

how exactly does that save fuel? still has to run the APU and the tug still uses fossil fuel...

APU = 500 gallons per hour
Tug = 10 mpg
One RB211 = 5 gazillion gallons per hour standing on the taxiway. In 10 minutes that's 1/60th of a gazillion gallons.
No contest

haha, nice try (more like Tug = 10 gpm )
anyway, the idea of being towed to the runway is stupid.

Not really, I imagine there would be a measurable saving in fuel, and less possibilities of snafu's with wrong taxiway/runway exit etc.
Be interesting to hear what Towerguy thinks.

[ardypilot]

I imagine there would be a measurable saving in fuel, and less possibilities of snafu's with wrong taxiway/runway exit etc.

I have an article in an old Airliner World mag (page 28, Dec 06) about Virgin Atlantic and their clean green policys, and Richard Branson reckons that if all jets switch off their engines while taxing to/from terminal to runway, 25% of the world's aviation emissions could be cut!