To save weight, airline removes life vests

In an attempt to cut as much weight as possible from their aircraft, Jazz Airlines, a subsidiary of Air Canada, recently decided to pull all life vests from their aircraft. Now, in the unlikely event of a water landing, passengers will be advised to use their floating seat cushions for buoyancy.

Will this affect the safety of the passengers? Well, purely from the flotation standpoint, life vests have an advantage in that they don’t need to be held onto, which can be tough to do when you’re in ice-cold Canadian water. They also help the passenger’s body face upward, out of the water versus the opposite position that holding a seat cushion would require (an article on TheStar has better diagrams). But government regulators don’t require one or the other.

How much do these life vests weigh? About a half kilogram. For the seventy five people that might be on this Jazz aircraft, that’s a total of thirty-eight kilograms or about eighty three pounds per flight.

It seems to me that there’s enough swing in the passenger and luggage loads such that the weight shouldn’t make much of a difference. Suppose a men’s rugby club books a dozen tickets instead of a middle school girl’s gymnastics team. Each one of those guys could weigh three times as much as the girl. What do you do about that?
Sure, many domestic airlines no longer have life vests, but for the eighty pounds of weight saved, is it really worth the drama and customer disgust?

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AirAsiaX mulls charging passengers by weight

Based on heated previous discussions here at Gadling, we know that the idea of charging passengers by their weight is a very touchy subject. In addition to the questionable legality of the concept, many are uncomfortable with the fact that one passenger may have to spend significantly more than the next — only to occupy the same seat on an aircraft.

For a while it was almost a joke — people knew that no American company would dare try something so bold at the risk of alienating the majority of their passenger base. Even Philadelphia Media Holdings ran a full page ad for a fake airline called “Derrie-air” to tease people and collect some marketing data on what the reaction would be.

Our new perspective on oil and the economy, however, is turning some of those chuckles into awkward inquisitions. Could someone really get away with charging a passenger by his or her weight?

AirAsiaX is starting to think so. Darren Wright, operating manager of the airline, recently told Travel Today that such extreme measures might be a possibility given the current state of the market. Stating that weighing each passenger could help balance cargo and overall aircraft balance, Mr Wright suggested that the measure “could help Aussies lose weight.”

No word on whether the airline is seriously considering the changes or whether Wright was just speaking candidly, but if something like this were to go into effect, it would surely rock the industry in which we now fly.

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Emirates chucks magazines…to save fuel

Interesting idea, but it honestly doesn’t make much sense to me.

Emirates has made a decision to get rid of all paper from the seat pockets on its new Airbus A380. Why? The Economist reports that they’re trying to save weight and, hence, fuel.

Don’t get me wrong. I think throwing out those silly in-flight magazines is a grand idea. However, can you seriously save significant weight by removing, say, 1000 magazines? Let’s say it’s the same weight as one passenger (after dinner.)

Does that really make a big difference?

The Economist writes that removing 2kg of paper from each of the 500 seats shaves a tonne off the plane’s flying weight. What do they mean by “2 kilos” of magazines, exactly? That’s 4 pounds. Maybe I’m missing something here, but I have never been on a flight where you find 4 lbs of reading material in the seat pocket in front of you.

What does Emirates provide for the reading pleasure of their customers? Bridal magazines?

Michelangelo’s David, after a short stay in America

I got this email from a couple of different people: “After a short stay in America, David returns to Italy.” You know what’s coming before you even open the picture. David gets FAT.

It reminds me of my first extended stay in America. When I first lived in the US as a student in 1994, I gained 30 pounds and 3 months. Yep, it was a not a pleasant sight. The thing is, I am not the type of person who ever gains weight. Until I moved here, I never thought it was possible for me to gain weight. It took me a year (after leaving the US) to lose those pounds.

I still can’t figure out why. It didn’t seem that I was eating more than I was used to. I had exercise. Some people tell me that it was probably just because I completely changed my eating habits and ate more carbs than I did before. Others claim that the additives in US food is what makes people gain weight.

I don’t know what it was. I do feel bad for David though. (Geez, lay off the pasta, man!)

Donkeys have rights too!

A beach holiday in the English tourist town of Blackpool just isn’t the same without a seaside ride on a donkey for the little one–it’s one of those quirky traditions that has made Blackpool such a famous vacation spot in the UK. But new animal cruelty rules will soon ban overweight kids from taking the traditional donkey rides. According to this article from The Daily Mail, riders must weight less than 8 stone (112 lbs) in order to ride the donkeys, meaning the ride is open to normal-sized children and Nicole Richie.

And that’s just the beginning of the new labour regulations for the Blackpool beach donkeys — they also must have one day off a week, they must be cleared for labour by a vet and they must be allowed at least an hour’s rest either at lunchtime or in the evening.

It’s hoped that these regulations will help set the standard for the rights of asses around the world (sorry, I couldn’t resist.)