First they started charging for meals, pillows, and blankets. Now, one airline is taking an extreme step to save fuel by ... removing life vests to lighten the planes:
An official with Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz says the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.
Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that Transport Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices instead of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 miles of shore.
Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct passengers to use the seat cushions as flotation devices.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/08/28/airline.vests.ap/index.html - Thanks Tiffany!
(Photo: L. Michael Roberts [Flickr])
http://www.flyjazz.ca/english/ourComm/routeMap.asp
Why don't they save more fuel by simply cutting the passengers? You know, take the money and give them a ticket, just don't let them board at take-off. Because I swear the airlines want just that. We give them money to not provide a service.
I looked around. The only times life vests were deployed in the last 20 years or so were twice that mattered. One instance was a non water landing, in 1989, and the other was a missing aircraft in 2000.
Seriously, if a Boeing or a MD crashes into the ocean, nobody is going to need a floatation device/aka pillow of beer farts!
but yea. this is a good idea because they should have done it a looong time ago. it's one of those things that plane developers could have done without from the beginning. and now they're like "oh we have this GREAT new idea.. let's get rid of this thing that we've never even used before to combat an issue that will never go away! go team!" i'm just wondering how many tiny things they're going to get rid of before they realize the whole market needs to change and not just the few minor details surrounding it.