For years, airline consultant Chris Russo has tried to win clients with a pitch about untapped ways to more effectively manage fuel. It has mostly fallen on deaf ears.
But since the U.S.-Iran war began ratcheting up oil price volatility, more airlines have returned calls, said Russo, the associate director of North American energy and commodities for Boston-based Publicis Sapient.
"There is opportunity for efficiency gain. I don't think you're going to run across an airline CFO who would disagree with that statement," Russo said. "The question becomes, 'Is the juice worth the squeeze?'"
These days, the answer could be yes.
In a projection released in June, IATA estimated that airlines globally would increase fuel spending to $350 billion this year, up from $252 billion in 2025. Fuel expenses are expected to be 31.4% of operating costs, up from 25.4%.
Those numbers have more carriers reviewing their fuel-optimization efforts, said Helene Manzoni, IATA's senior manager of fuel efficiency.
"We've seen even the bigger airlines asking us, 'How am I doing, what can I do better?'" she said.
Airlines can improve their fuel-cost management by making ground and flight operations more efficient. They can also source cheaper fuel when possible.
Fuel hedging, in which carriers lock in prices months in advance, can provide pricing certainty and save large sums when prices spike, but it comes with the risk of overspending when prices drop.
One example of an airline taking extraordinary measures to manage fuel costs came from Southwest in May.
Concerned about high prices and potential fuel shortages from Asian sources that feed its West Coast operations, Southwest shipped 12.6 million barrels of lower-cost Gulf Coast fuel via tanker through the Panama Canal to the Port of Los Angeles.
"Our fuel spending per gallon for Q2 was below averages of what others have reported, and our teams will continue to be opportunistic to manage that cost as best we can," said Southwest.
Southwest's Q2 fuel cost per gallon averaged $3.92, compared to $3.93 for Delta, $4.05 for American and $4.19 for United.
JetBlue CFO Ursula Hurley also emphasized a focus on fuel management during the airline's Q2 earnings call.
"Whether it's identifying more efficient routing opportunities in flight, providing pilots with personalized operational insights or using predictive planning and ground-operation analytics to improve consistency, we're creating a more connected, data-driven approach to fuel management across the airline," Hurley said.
Koen Karsbergen, co-founder and principal consultant of Mexico-based Air52 Aviation Consultants, said airlines are making a point to more closely communicate with pilots on ways they can reduce fuel burn. Sometimes that means ensuring pilots more frequently follow the optimum flight plan. When a flight is running early, pilots can save fuel by flying more slowly.
Some carriers are also more closely monitoring pilots' decisions on fuel loads.
There's a minimum fuel level required for specific routes, with extra fuel available as a safety measure. Karsbergen said that prior to takeoff, pilots have the final say on whether to add fuel just in case it's needed, and they often do. Carrying too much fuel, however, decreases efficiency because weight is added to the engine load.
Increasingly, Karsbergen said, airlines are asking pilots to justify why they took on extra fuel.
Manzoni said IATA has identified 12 procedures that pilots can perform to reduce fuel consumption, including taxiing with just one engine when possible and using less reverse thrust when landing.
While Hurley noted that JetBlue is enhancing its use of predictive planning to optimize management, Russo said airlines usually are falling short in this area.
"This is a perfect case for AI, but 80% of decisions are still being made by a consortium of people sitting around," he said. "They aren't effectively leveraging data."
Publicis Sapient has worked with Phillips 66 and Chevron, both of which take a far more sophisticated approach to fuel management than airlines, Russo said. With better planning and oversight, airlines could optimize purchases in terms of quantity and buying from the most cost-efficient sources at the right time.
Daniel Chereau, IATA's head of fuel, said that large airlines typically have invested the most in fuel management and efficiency. One notable effort is Lufthansa's experimentation with Aeroshark, an adhesive film on plane exteriors designed to mimic shark skin and reduce drag.
"Airlines can get very creative," he said.