Narrative:

I was re-assigned by scheduling to cover a trip to ZZZ1. I printed the release from dispatch and noticed on the top of the release that due to atmospheric conditions (OAT 35 degrees) we would be weight restricted. I arrived at the aircraft prior to the captain; as he was deadheading in on another flight and had just landed 10 minutes prior to show time. The gate agent was already aware that we would be weight restricted and asked me if we could take all the passengers. At that moment in time she had 60 passengers and 3 checked bags showing on her computer. According to the release we could take a max of 59 passengers and 65 bags. So I informed her that we should be good on those numbers but we would confirm with her once the captain had arrived and we had a chance to run some numbers. So the captain and I agreed that we could take all the passengers including a few last minute standbys. We received the final paper work (load report) right at departure time; so we completed the final numbers and pushed off the gate. As we where taxiing out we received a message from the FMS that we had insufficient fuel for our flight. The FMS was estimating us to land at approximately 2700 lbs of fuel. The captain verified that we would have the required minimum fuel taking the runway for departure so we elected to continue per SOP. Upon further review (en-route) of the release we noticed that the dispatcher had planned for us to land with 2700 lbs of fuel remaining. Both the captain and I found this to be very strange. Reason being that according to the fom we should at the TOD declare minimum fuel if it is determined that one will land with less than 3000 lbs; yet we reach our first initial fix and find that we are already at minimum fuel requirements. We both decided to pull out the fom to review and refresh our FAA company approved fuel planning procedures. We discovered that in fom it specifically states that the dispatcher is to plan the following: a. Planned fuel burn from departure airport to destination B. 45 minutes of reserve fuel at long range cruise at the planned altitude and aircraft weight prior to top of descent (TOD) C. 30 minutes of VFR holding fuel which will be placed in the tankering (or extra) field (typically 1;200 pounds of fuel). D. Appropriate taxi fuel for the departure airport. According to the supplemental performance manual if we had to hold at our current weight at 30;000 feet our fuel burn for 30 minutes would of required approximately 1700 lbs. We had 569 lbs!once the captain and I discovered this we contacted our dispatcher to ask him what the minimum estimated FOD could be for dispatch. He didn't answer our question but instead informed us that he had intentionally planned us lean on fuel to accommodate more passengers for the flight. We reminded him of the procedure in our fom to which point he acknowledged that he was aware of that but again was more concerned with us taking more passengers to cmh. Once we were aware of our situation; in an effort to save fuel; we utilized the econ speeds of the ACARS and flew at .70M for the majority of the way (we had been planned at .74M; but did not have the fuel to fly at .74M; unless we wanted to declare a fuel emergency!). We descended using a 4.0 degree descent profile instead of the normal 3 degree profile to help conserve every drop of fuel we could; and also requested every shortcut available to us. Finally we also decided to conducted the flight at FL370 (instead of the planned FL350); but finally had to declare minimum fuel at TOD (as per SOP) which resulted in ATC switching the runway configuration around for us so that we could land straight in on runway 10L. All of this still resulted in us touching down right at 3000 lbs of fuel remaining!!! Had we not had the help of ATC; the ACARS econ speeds; good weather with no pop up thunderstorms to navigate around and our knowledge in reducing the fuel consumption; we would have probably ended up declaring a fuel emergency and may have had to divert. In the future; I will check and make sure that I look more closely at and review the planned FOD on the release. Furthermore I feel that it is not a good practice and also puts safety at risk by allowing dispatchers to intentionally plan for crews to land with less than 3000 lbs of fuel. We all agree that we need to save fuel; but not at [the cost of] the safe operation of a flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ170 crew is dispatched with minimum fuel to accommodate maximum passenger load on a weight restricted flight. Taking the runway the FMS advises insufficient fuel. Consulting the Flight Release reveals that the minimum fuel required is on board and the flight departs. Enroute the crew discovers the flight has been planned to land with 2700 pounds of fuel which is less than the 3000 pounds required by the FOM. Minimum fuel is declared.

Narrative: I was re-assigned by scheduling to cover a trip to ZZZ1. I printed the release from Dispatch and noticed on the top of the release that due to atmospheric conditions (OAT 35 degrees) we would be weight restricted. I arrived at the aircraft prior to the Captain; as he was deadheading in on another flight and had just landed 10 minutes prior to show time. The Gate agent was already aware that we would be weight restricted and asked me if we could take all the passengers. At that moment in time she had 60 passengers and 3 checked bags showing on her computer. According to the release we could take a max of 59 passengers and 65 bags. So I informed her that we should be good on those numbers but we would confirm with her once the Captain had arrived and we had a chance to run some numbers. So the Captain and I agreed that we could take all the passengers including a few last minute standbys. We received the final paper work (Load Report) right at departure time; so we completed the final numbers and pushed off the gate. As we where taxiing out we received a message from the FMS that we had insufficient fuel for our flight. The FMS was estimating us to land at approximately 2700 lbs of fuel. The Captain verified that we would have the required minimum fuel taking the runway for departure so we elected to continue per SOP. Upon further review (en-route) of the release we noticed that the Dispatcher had planned for us to land with 2700 lbs of fuel remaining. Both the Captain and I found this to be very strange. Reason being that according to the FOM we should at the TOD declare minimum fuel if it is determined that one will land with less than 3000 lbs; yet we reach our first initial fix and find that we are already at minimum fuel requirements. We both decided to pull out the FOM to review and refresh our FAA company APPROVED fuel planning procedures. We discovered that in FOM it specifically states that the Dispatcher is to plan the following: A. Planned fuel burn from departure airport to destination B. 45 minutes of reserve fuel at long range cruise at the planned altitude and aircraft weight prior to Top of Descent (TOD) C. 30 minutes of VFR holding fuel which will be placed in the tankering (or extra) field (typically 1;200 pounds of fuel). D. Appropriate taxi fuel for the departure airport. According to the supplemental performance manual if we had to hold at our current weight at 30;000 feet our fuel burn for 30 minutes would of required approximately 1700 lbs. We had 569 lbs!Once the Captain and I discovered this we contacted our dispatcher to ask him what the minimum estimated FOD could be for dispatch. He didn't answer our question but instead informed us that he had intentionally planned us lean on fuel to accommodate more passengers for the flight. We reminded him of the procedure in our FOM to which point he acknowledged that he was aware of that but again was MORE concerned with us taking more passengers to CMH. Once we were aware of our situation; in an effort to save fuel; we utilized the ECON SPEEDS of the ACARS and flew at .70M for the majority of the way (we had been planned at .74M; but did not have the fuel to fly at .74M; unless we wanted to declare a fuel emergency!). We descended using a 4.0 degree descent profile instead of the normal 3 degree profile to help conserve every drop of fuel we could; and also requested every shortcut available to us. Finally we also decided to conducted the flight at FL370 (instead of the planned FL350); but finally had to declare minimum fuel at TOD (as per SOP) which resulted in ATC switching the runway configuration around for us so that we could land straight in on Runway 10L. All of this still resulted in us touching down right at 3000 lbs of fuel remaining!!! Had we not had the help of ATC; the ACARS ECON speeds; good weather with no pop up thunderstorms to navigate around and our knowledge in reducing the fuel consumption; we would have probably ended up declaring a FUEL EMERGENCY and may have had to divert. In the future; I will check and make sure that I look more closely at and review the planned FOD on the release. Furthermore I feel that it is not a good practice and also puts safety at risk by allowing dispatchers to intentionally plan for crews to land with less than 3000 lbs of fuel. We all agree that we need to save fuel; but not at [the cost of] the safe operation of a flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.