Faro From Egypt, joined Aug 2007, 1443 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 7490 times:
How much does de-icing fluid cost? Are there several types of this fluid? And labour + overheads, how much in general terms would it cost to de-ice say a 738 with half an inch of indurated ice over its surface covered by two inched of snow?
TristarSteve From Sweden, joined Nov 2005, 3693 posts, RR: 34 Reply 1, posted (3 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 7481 times:
There are 3 main types of fluid, Type 1, type 2 and type 4.
Type 1 is for deicing. It is diluted with hot water to a maximum of 50/50. Less fluid is required when it is not so cold.
Type 2 and 4 are anticing fluids. They can be diluted as well, but here we use them neat. When neat they are applied cold.
This fluid costs around 15 USD a litre.
To deice a frozen B738 you can use between 200-1500 litres.
The cost of hiring the truck is about 600 USD per application.
The truck is expensive because the crew are on standby all winter, and we only pay when we use them.
If the snow is soft, we blow it off the wings first with a blower on the truck, or use plain hot water before deicing.
In Sweden, after deicing the fluid is hoovered up by a sweeper and taken to a storage area, where it is recycled.
Lots of money involved!
Thanx indeed TristarSteve, that's a whopping big expense that hits your trip P+L there, USD 15 per litre is no joke. If you were to use the maximum 1'500 litres for a 738 you're looking at a USD +30k bill which may conceivably be enough to wipe out the gross profit of a number of trips. Good thing it happens rarely...
BTW, how much % fluid can you recover by the hoover method?
TristarSteve From Sweden, joined Nov 2005, 3693 posts, RR: 34 Reply 4, posted (3 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 7426 times:
Quoting Francoflier (Reply 2): Does the 1500L figure you give represent a two phase deicing/anti-icing for the whole aircraft (B738)?
Anticing uses little fluid, around 200litres will cover a B744.
Its deicing that uses fluid, yesterday we had frozen snow and it took 15 mins to get it off a B767 with two trucks. But as the temp was around zero, most of the fluid was hot water.
Pilotpip From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 3082 posts, RR: 12 Reply 5, posted (3 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 7307 times:
Most trucks have a sight gauge on the side. You'll note that the Type I tank is often three to four times larger than the Type 2/4 tank for this reason mentioned above. You need a lot more type 1 because you have to have a clean surface before you apply the anti ice fluid.
RDUOODL From United States of America, joined Dec 2009, 62 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 7095 times:
AA had all three of their de-ice trucks not running one night and we had to complete the spraying of their aircraft. The B763 to LHR had a light layer of ice over the wings with snow falling in the area. AA paid nearly $4000 to have it treated with only Type-I fluid. It only took us six minutes to finish the aircraft. AA ended up using us for the next five days for all of their flights for a grand total of $63K. I still tell the station manager he owes us dinner.....
"Clearance, Delta 1291, Give it to me a little slower this time. It was too fast, I didn't get enough of it." ATC-"TWSS"
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From Egypt, joined Aug 2007, 1443 posts, 
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