Spoons ditched to shave costs | The Sun — When accountants start running things, then this is the result. Prediction: it gets worse.
COST-CUTTING airlines are making spoons smaller and dropping in-flight mags to make planes lighter and save fuel. The International Air Transport Association has revealed Northwest Airlines has taken spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal doesn’t need one.
And another carrier, JAL of Japan, took everything it loaded from a 747 and put it on the floor of a school gym to see what it really needed. It shaved a fraction of a centimetre off all its cutlery to cut weight.
The body’s director of the environment Paul Steele said: “When you are talking about a jumbo jet with 400 people on board, being served two to three meals, this can save a few kilos.
#15 I agree. I’ve always liked the idea of having passengers step onto a scale with all their luggage. A standard ticket could cover a certain amount of weight, with a small additional cost for each pound over the limit. For families, you could add up how much their total weight limit is from the number of tickets they have. If the entire family’s weight with their luggage is less than this, they’re good.
Screw the airlines. The minute you buy your non-transferable, non-refundable ticket they’ve already got you by the balls. Baggage fees, fuel surcharges, booking fees… How can these idiots NOT be making money by the truckload?
#21 “always liked the idea of having passengers step onto a scale with all their luggage. A standard ticket could cover a certain amount of weight, with a small additional cost for each pound over the limit. ”
Actually, the airlines used to do just that, back before the jet age. You will occasionally see references to it in old movies. The time has come again, especially with the growing girth of many Americans!
the problem with that is that it would kill the American Airline Companies because the fat-ass lazy Americans would stop flying. Then the right-wing crazies would have to invent another war to try and get the economy stirring, that would create a new generation of terrorists, and on and on and on. No, the answer is eliminate the weak-minded right wing crazies.
Weighing suitcases and charging by pound makes sense, since the airlines have to pay for no just fuel, but also baggage handlers to move the luggage.
Put a sign up at the boarding line-up:
No fat chicks!
- think of the savings!
“this can save a few kilos”
Considering that the plane weighs a few Hundred Thousand Kilograms at takeoff – a few Kilograms won’t save any measurable amount of anything – beyond the cost of the spoon itself.
#27, you are correct. 100 kilos / flight = pennies in fuel savings.
#6
…….it’s not their ’style’.
ROFLMAO
#28, Bubba,
A few years ago a major airline calculated that they would save $50,000 a year by removing just the cherry tomatoes from each salad. When an executive boasted about the cost savings, the airline took a huge hit in passengers. Especially the corporate types who paid extra for their salads. It took a much more expensive PR effort to woo those executives back.
The moral of the story is airlines have to be careful how they introduce any cost savings.
#30 –
but i don’t see the downside of smaller/lighter utensils. i know that airlines are the favorite whipping boy right now (and they deserve a lot of the flack they get — paying to use the restroom for fraks sake?!?) but this is a legitimate area they can introduce savings; and let’s face it, they need every penny.
#30, Mr. Fusion, it all depends on the leg length I suppose. SW Airlines doesn’t skimp on much and they seem to make ends meet without cheaping out on the passengers. For long legs, I’ll agree fuel savings might amount to some dollars / flight, but short legs get the fuel eaten up with takeoffs / climb to altitude, not the cruise.
I wonder how much of that $50,000 was in fuel savings and how much in tomatoes.
I agree completely with your argument about perception of who skimps and who doesn’t. No wonder Southwest is doing so well.