[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...