Angry in the Great White North

And they're off into the wild blue yonder!  The Liberals, the Conservatives, and the NDP are arranging air travel for the upcoming election campaign.  The Liberals are in a bit of trouble, and not just because they can't get a plane just quite yet:

When the federal election is called tomorrow, Liberal leader Stephane Dion will hit the campaign trail aboard the only jet owned by Air Inuit - when it is ready to fly.

Liberal officials confirmed last night they were only able to get a plane in the past week, and that it's still being "fitted up" for the Dion campaign.

It is not expected to be airborne before Wednesday afternoon.

The Conservatives and New Democrats have had long-standing financial deals with Air Canada that guaranteed campaign planes would be available to the two parties on short notice.

But as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Jack Layton cross the country on Air Canada Airbus 319s, the Liberal campaign team will be depending on Air Inuit's Boeing 737.

The 737 is the only jet-propelled aircraft in Air Inuit's fleet; all of its other planes are twin propeller cargo or short-haul passenger planes leaving little room for alternative plans should the airline's only jet have a breakdown.

Specifically, Air Inuit flies a 737-200, while Air Canada is leasing A319-100s.  Poking around, I worked out these numbers for the campaigns.

Fuel Flow Rate:

• A319-100 (Conservatives/NDP): 660 gallons/hour
• B737-200 (Liberals): 920 gallons/hour

Campaign Fund Burn Rate (335.3 cents per gallon):

• A319-100 (Conservatives/NDP): $2200/hour
• B737-200 (Liberals): $3100/hour

Greenhouse Gas Emissions (9.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide per gallon of jet fuel):

• A319-100 (Conservatives/NDP): 6,336 kg of CO2 per hour
• B737-200 (Liberals): 8,825 kg of CO2 per hour

So I guess that means the financially-strapped environmentally-friendly Liberals will be flying the most expensive and most polluting aircraft of all the major parties.

Update: Jane Taber at the Globe and Mail reveals the not-so-green history of the plane the Liberals are planning to use.

Some details: This post has a lot more legs than I expected.  Links from Bourque, other blogs, and now the Globe and Mail.  So I figure I ought to give some of the links.  I didn't earlier since this is so technical, and I figured people could find this data on any number of sites.

Fuel burn rate for the A319-100 given as 2500 l/h in this forum thread.  At 3.79 liters to the gallon, that comes out 660 gallons per hour.  Interestingly, in this post, he also explains that though the A32X is much more efficient, the leasing costs of the 737is much less.  Looks like the Liberals went for cheap instead of clean.

Fuel burn rate for the 737-200 given 2827 kg/h.  One gallon of jet fuel weighs 6.79 pounds, or 3.08 kg.  So the burn rate converts to 920 gallons per hour. 

Current jet fuel prices at IATA.

Carbon dioxide emissions for jet fuel is 21.1 pounds per gallon.

The rest is just math.

Just to know, that some of these numbers are idealized specifications.  The actual burn rate is likely to be worse, especially for the 737 being flown by the Liberals, as it is easily the older of the two planes. 

Offsetting the Political Fallout:  I guess I'll have to take it all back.  The Liberal Party is buying carbon offsets.  On the other hand, maybe carbon offsets aren't all that helpful.