Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Type 760
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Aircraft
I was Captain on [flight from] ZZZ to TXKF. I have extensive Caribbean experience but had never operated into TXKF. I was thinking 'I wonder what we use for alternate' as the weather was 700 OVC; winds 200/25g35 (TXKF has only one runway 12-30). Forecast was for 1500 BKN winds 200/30 with heavy rains forecast at arrival time. Flight Plan showed landing with 2:15 mins of fuel. Couldn't find anything in the [overseas operations manual] about TXKF so I called dispatch. He stated that we operate under an exemption (2 hour exemption which I later found in the FOM). I told him I was unfamiliar with this exemption and I didn't like the sound of it because TXKF is very isolated and what happens if the runway becomes unusable; i.e. another plane becomes disabled; crashed etc... I asked what the closest airport would be in this scenario and he said Norfolk ORF. I then asked for a fuel burn and time from the MAP at TXKF to ORF with our current winds aloft. The answer was 1:58 to ORF. I then stated that I would not accept 2:15 worth of fuel in this scenario; but all we could add was :13 otherwise we would exceed our max landing weight unless we started bumping revenue. So if I was on final and a plane became disabled or crashed; unless I immediately headed for ORF I would be in REAL jeopardy of running out of fuel once that decision was made. Furthermore; if we were dispatched with solely the 2 hours required and this happened we would have only 2 mins of fuel to play with before we would be swimming on our way to ORF. I called my best friend who is a CAPT and they fly to TXKF in an A319 which can carry enough fuel to TXKF; back to [their departure airport] +45 mins without bumping revenue. A 737-800 cannot do this due to the landing weight and I submit that this is the wrong aircraft for this leg; plus it is UNSAFE. Here's a scenario to think about: nowhere on the Flight Plan is the time or fuel to ORF notated; so let's say a captain blindly accepts the 'two hour' exemption dispatch and on final another aircraft crashes. They will go around and then hold; try to get hold of dispatch; but when the decision to divert to ORF is reached its meaningless because they never could have anyway as they only HAD TWO MINUTES TO PLAY WITH. In my scenario with adding fuel so that I landed at Maximum Gross Landing Weight; I still only had 30 mins worth of fuel with the BEST CASE scenario. Add in a hold and decision making time and the reality of ending up in the Atlantic is very very real.
B737-800 Captain reported being concerned with the amount of fuel on board in the event he had to divert from TXKF.