Energy Consumption: Airplanes

To find the kWh used flying in Hong Kong per person per day, first the amount of passengers from Hong Kong airports per years was found to be 20,010,000 passengers/year. Then the average flight time was assumed to be 3 hours, using flights going out of Hong Kong. Like McKay, we assumed all flights were a 747 which cruises at 565 miles/hour, has a fuel economy of 0.138 miles/gallon and carries 416 passengers when full. Also using McKay's assumption of 10 kWh per litre which translates to 37.9 kWh per gallon.

Therefore:

This amount of energy usage may seem high, however there are a few reasons that could contribute to such a high number. First, the amount of airline passengers per capita (1) is 2.9 passengers per capita, this is the 13th highest around the world. Also, many of the passengers going to and from Hong Kong would be business related, therefore while still using Hong Kong's resources, they are not included in the per capita count.

(1) http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tra_air_tra_pas_car_percap-transport-passengers-carried-per-capita