I have been very inquisitive about air travel lately. This took me on a journey to actually find out how much it costs to fuel planes.
In this article, we would be using a Boeing 747 as reference and data (cost of aviation fuel) provided by IATA (International Air Transport Association).We would be calculating how much fuel would be consumed on a flight from Lagos (MMA) to London (Heathrow).

First, let’s get some parameters right

Distance between the two airports :

Approx. 5,006 Km

Time taken for the journey :

6 hours 35 mins , which is equal to 395 mins

Cost of aviation fuel :

According to IATA, it costs 211.23 cts/gal
cts/gal is a term used in aviation,it means cents per gallon.

Lets convert this figure to ₦/litre

Lets use ₦360 per $

One dollar is 100 cents
211.23 cents = 2.11 dollars

To Naira = ₦759.6

This figure is per gallon

1 Gallon is approx. 3.79 litres

That means its costs ₦759.6 per 3.79 litres
That gives us ₦200.42 per litre

Quantity of fuel used for the journey :

The Boeing 747 uses about 12 litres per kilometre

Remember we are travelling 5,006 Km

That’s 60,072 litres consumed from Lagos to London

Let’s covert that to Naira
Remember it costs ₦200.42 per litre

That brings the total cost of fuel to travel from Lagos to London to ₦12,039,630.24!!

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