Preface:

I’m not a physics kind of person, so for those of you who are, don’t be hard on me as I try to explain technical terms from my perspective. Also, dear reader, let me get down in the weeds for a bit with the technical stuff, so I can truly explain why global warming is affecting our ability to fly and explore the world.  

Why Can a Plane Fly? 

We have to start with the basics. A plane can fly due to a combination of 2 physics terms: thrust and lift.    

Thrust is the speed the plane gets to as it goes down the runway. Physicists love using a line graph to show the building of energy when one minute you’re sitting still in your seat, and the next minute you feel yourself bouncing down the runway, watching things zoom by out the window faster and faster. 

Lift is affected by the shape of the wing itself. When the plane goes faster, there is a point where the plane begins to move upward into the sky.

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A plane can fly at the moment when the lift and the thrust cross on the two graphs. I call this the whump moment. It’s the moment when you’re sitting in your seat, bouncing down the runway, and then it feels like the plane just jumps in the air. There’s a slight pause then you are rocketing up in the sky and being pushed into your seat. 

What Affects the Meeting Point of Thrust and Lift? 

The Planes Themselves 

The power of the plane’s engines affects how quickly the plane can get to the amount of trust needed for taking off.   

Another factor is the weight of the plane. One thing most travelers don’t realize is that the weight of the plane includes more than just themselves, their bags, and the fuel to reach their destination. Planes are required to carry a minimum of 5% extra of their fuel load. Most commercial airlines have increased this amount of fuel to cover an hour of flight time to allow for potential circling at busy airports. Also, to increase revenue and make up for losses, airlines fill the plane’s belly with commercial cargo that is under long-term contracts. Heavier planes cause the engines to work harder and longer to get to the needed point of thrust.  

The Design of Airport Runways 

A runway must be a minimum of 8,500 feet (2591 meters) for a Dreamliner to build up enough speed in “average” air temperatures to reach the necessary thrust. Most airports will not allow one of the world’s favorite airplanes to take off unless their runway is at least 10,000 feet (about 3.05 km) long to allow room for error. 

Most of the runways in the world are made of concrete covered with asphalt.  Increased heat causes the combination to become stickier, and the length of the runway needed to reach the necessary amount of thrust needed for takeoff increases. 

 Wow. That was a lot of information about technical stuff, so now I will get to the point. 

Why Did You Need to Read all that Technical Stuff? 

A professor of Atmospheric Studies at the University of Reading named Paul Williams did a study where he found that modern planes lose 1% lift for every 5.4 F (3.1C) increase in air temperature. Williams looked at the 10 major airports in Greece and temperatures on their hottest days and found the temperature was going up 1.35F (0.75C) every year.  

In travelers' terms, this increase in temperature means that each year 1 passenger and their checked bags would need to be removed from the plane to allow for enough lift of the planes.  A study from Columbia discovered that by 2050, airplanes taking off from the 4 busiest airports in the US would need to travel with 50% to 200% less weight to get in the air.  
 

What is being Done to Get Planes Off the Ground During the Hottest Months? 

What are airline Manufacturers Doing to Help? 

Manufacturers are placing an emphasis on building more powerful and efficient engines.  They are also designing composite components to build plane bodies that are lighter in weight. 

What are the Airlines Doing to Cope with Physics?    

Airlines are changing the times of flights during the summer months, operating more flights early in the morning hours or late at night, and avoiding the hot times of the day. This makes it more challenging for flyers who are trying to cross multiple time zones as it causes either long or very short layovers, basically impossible layovers as travelers' only options. 

Airlines are also adding more annoying baggage fees. They are encouraging travelers to pack lighter by making it more expensive to travel with luggage.   

Finally, airlines are removing passengers from flight manifests right before flights.  Airlines have gotten themselves in a bind.  They have long-term contracts to provide cargo movement, and the airlines on the day of the flights would rather remove passengers than remove cargo.  Thus, causing ticket agents to tell flyers those vague reasons of, essentially, “I’m sorry you thought you were going to get on this plane today, but you’re not. Let’s reschedule you.”  

What are Airports and Cities Doing to Help?  

Airports, where possible, are extending runways. For many of our major metropolitan older airports, this is not physically possible as they don’t have more land for expansion. Some cities or countries are choosing to build a second airport outside of cities.  Whether expanding or building new, both require public funds, which is a very slow process to obtain. 

Conclusion 

While all of these adaptations by the airlines and their manufacturers are great short-term solutions, as long as the world keeps getting hotter, the problem will not go away. At some point, global warming has the potential to make flying during certain times to certain parts of the world just plain impossible.  

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