[ertemplin]

The FAA and ICAO regulation for flights above 18,000 feet is that you need to have enough fuel to reach your destination, an appropriate alternate airport, and cruise for an additional 45 minutes. I doubt they ran out of fuel after 3 attempts to land at the original destination airport.

[stevehawk]

I'd love for a heavy pilot to comment on the math involved. Fuel burn on takeoff is a lot more than cruise. I'd assume ~3x as much. Throw in the amount of time to fly around a pattern and that 45 minutes doesn't give a lot of flexibility if you start botching landings.

[asdfadsfgfdda]

This may surprise you, but the fuel burn for holding is essentially constant vs altitude. What suffers is the range, flying at low altitude is much worse for fuel range because at high altitude, true air speed increases for a given indicated air speed.

Page 17 shows ~5000 lb/hr at mid weight: https://www.air-septimanie.com/pdf/technical/A320/en/A320PER...

[RandomBacon]

For a large jet, a single go-around can take about 12 minutes.

Longer if they're having problems turning the plane due to hydraulic issues.