RYANAIR pilots have denounced as “insane” attempts to pressurise them into flying with less fuel by imposing a cap on their safety reserves. The low-cost airline is saving money by curbing the discretionary rights of pilots to request extra fuel.

The disclosure, contained in internal company documents seen by The Sunday Times, has led to claims that the safety of passengers is being compromised. Its pilots must now abide by a maximum limit of 300kg of extra fuel, which the memo states costs £180 (€227). This typically provides 4 minutes of extra stacking time for a Boeing 737.

Under European rules, every plane must carry a “contingency” load of about 5% of the trip fuel and enough to carry out an approach, divert to an alternative airport or hold for 30 minutes at an alternative airport. Captains also have a legal duty to anticipate delays from headwinds, storms and re-routing, and to request extra fuel to cope with this. In the Ryanair memo sent to pilots in May, the company insisted that any such request by a captain should be the “exception”.

According to the Irish Aviation Authority there was one fuel emergency declared this year where an aircraft had to divert to an alternative airport. On seven occasions aircraft diverted because of fuel limitations without declaring an emergency.

In 2007 two fuel-related maydays were declared and three aircraft were forced to declare priority for landing because of low fuel. Ten others diverted due to low fuel.

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the number of emergencies declared in British airspace because of fuel shortages has doubled since 2003. The figure rose from 11 to 27 last year.

Evan Cullen, president of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, said commercial pressure from airlines on pilots to pare down the amount of fuel they carry is compromising safety.

“Due to the high price of fuel, pilots are being targeted. They are being frightened into taking on less fuel which, in turn, is narrowing safety margins. It is up to the pilot to withstand the pressure, but it is not easy,” Cullen said.

The weight of extra fuel costs money: pilots typically burn about 4% of their load just on carrying the fuel. The 14-point memo sent to Ryanair pilots warned that all requests for extra fuel have to be put in writing, with failure to do so resulting in a formal warning letter.

The memo said that 95% of captains were still taking extra fuel, despite its edict, and listed a series of their justifications that it would no longer accept.

Some pilots were pointing to CAA guidance, which states that they should take enough fuel to cope with the standard stacking time of 20 minutes over busy UK airports. But the memo states: “Ryanair can statistically prove that 20 minutes’ fuel is not required in LTN or STN. Therefore it is not Ryanair policy to carry this fuel.” This fuel is usually taken from the pilot’s discretionary reserve.

Pilots are also refused extra fuel for observing altitude restrictions imposed by air traffic controllers.

One pilot said: “It is insane to push pilots to fly with the minimum fuel and take the risk of ending with a low fuel situation and maybe no place to go because the only diversion airport within reach will be mobbed by other airplanes.”

A spokesman for Ryanair rejected claims that pilots are allowed to fly with minimum fuel. But he admitted that pilots were allowed extra fuel only in “exceptional cases”, adding that “pilots who fail to comply with any of Ryanair’s safety procedures will always receive written warnings”. He said Ryanair had suffered one mayday in the past three years from fuel shortages. He was unable to comment on the memos.

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