Posts Tagged ‘airlines’
My father lives in Ontario, and in my younger years I used to fly out two or three times a year to visit. As I grew up I never forgot the excitement that came with going to visit my dad- the flight to and from was almost as fun as the reason for the visit itself!
So, unfortunately, it’s with a cold, cruel tone that I write this. The irony is not at all lost on me, either, but that doesn’t make it any less unfortunate.
Paranoia Induces Overregulation
I believe that modern-day air travel is absolutely ridiculous, and this was made crystal-clear to me when a child that was sitting behind me asked to see the cockpit - something that I used to do regularly when I flew as a kid - and was denied by the flight attendant. I can’t even completely explain the wonder and amazaement that I used to feel when I entered the cockpit, with it’s big windows displaying the horizon so triumphantly.
Looking around, I used to wonder what every button, switch, and dial did. It was a fantasy of mine to one day fly an airplane and find out. In fact, one of my prevailing memories as a kid was a pilot explaining to me how their radar worked: “this is our radar, it tells us where other planes are. Sometimes a plane will ‘ping’ us, and to show that we’re nice guys, we’ll ‘ping’ them right back. It’s kind of like playing tag, except 40,000 feet in the air”.
Now, you can’t even stand within three feet of the cockpit door during a commercial flight. How… overzealous.
I Believe in Safety… To a Point
I never had a problem with flying, ever. Now, there’s some irrational fear that exists within me that causes me to be anxious and leery before each flight that I make. Given that I fly, on average, at least a dozen times per year this is obviously a feeling I really don’t want to experience.
Now, I can’t even take a bottle of water on an airplane thanks to a terrorist plot involving liquid explosives. Of course, it’s no problem at all if I want to spend $3 mid-flight and purchase one. I’m all for safety, but this seems to be a little over the top. Realistically speaking, in nearly 100 years of flying we are now locked down to the point where something that was once a leisurly activity is now a chore- something that post people just shrug off and ignore until they get to their destination.
I want my freedoms back, as a consumer and as a Canadian. I want to be able to enjoy flying in the same capacity that I used to. Most importantly, I want flying to step down from its pedestal and come back down to earth. There is no reason that we can’t be safe and secure without involving being padded down, stripped down, and humiliated before each and every flight.
The average person won’t have a problem finding reasons why the indsutry is in peril. Why can’t the industry?
In this weekly segment, we cover the top discussions going on in the automotive forums. These threads may be the most recent hot topics, or epic threads that we just wanted to dig up and feature.
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Do You Recline Your Seat on Flights?
There were clearly two distinct sides to this debate. I never really thought much about reclining my seat when I fly. As soon as the wheels are up, my seat is always reclined as far as it will go. I’m all about maximizing comfort when flying and apparently many people find my actions extremely rude. Whats your take? Do you recline your seat? I’ll be honest though, if I was asked to move my seat back up a bit I would raise it back up a bit.
Is Canada Bending Over Backwards For Immigrants?
Everytime I read about another holiday being renamed in order to “not offend minorities” I feel that a little bit of Canadian culture is being washed away. We’re told that we should be saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, and more recently Happy Orange and Black Day instead of Happy Halloween. This is absurd! If new immigrants do not celebrate our holidays or do not understand our traditions, we should be teaching them about Canadian culture not pussifying our culture so they aren’t offended when we celebrate Christmas and Halloween.
Halloween 2008 Pumpkin Thread
Hey, if Halloween offends you please don’t check this thread out! Members have posted some of their pumpkins that they have carved. If you haven’t already done so, post a picture of your jack-o-lantern and share with the community your work of art.
Jazz Airlines, a regional carrier owned by Air Canada has taken extreme measures to save fuel on their flights by removing inflatable life vests. Aren’t these things mandatory you ask? Technically, no. Transport Canada regulates airline safety and states that airlines only require one floatation device per passenger when a flight is within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of shore. Each seat cushion on an airplane also serves as a floatation device. Infant and toddler sized inflatable life vests will still be available on board Jazz flights.
I’m not sure how many life vests a typical plane carries or how much each one weighs but will this even save any significant amount of fuel? The airline has also stated that it is modifying some routes to ensure the plane remains within the 80 km limit off the shore. Wouldn’t this further negate the fuel savings? Soaring gas prices have led airlines to make changes to their daily operations but they have never been at the expense of passenger safety.
It’s not clear how much weight would actually be saved by removing the vests, “but when you’re trying to save every bit of money you can to make the airline more productive, every bit counts,” Tom Hinton, a former top aviation official at the Transportation Safety Board, told the Toronto Star.
This sort of obsessive weight reduction reminds me of people that replace their factory bolts with “light weight” titanium bolts for better performance when really a quick trip to the porcelain throne with a bottle of laxative will net better results. Next week we’ll hear about Air Canada removing a few rows of seats so they can offer “Standing room” tickets to save even more weight!
Skyrocketing fuel costs have hit the airline industry hard this year prompting Air Canada to implement a fuel surcharge with WestJet following soon after. Air Canada is going one step further by implementing a $25 charge for that second piece of checked luggage.
Now, airlines are going one step further and adopting a practice used in the automobile industry, called hypermiling. The basic premise of hypermiling is to save fuel by cutting back on excessive acceleration and cruising as much as possible. The more extreme techniques of hypermiling however would not work for airlines (747s tailgating another 747 to save jetfuel?).
Westjet has started to relax on the throttle on many of its flights so if you thought that last flight took a bit longer than it should have, it probably did. Air Canada is also slowing down some of its flights to conserve fuel but its flights will only be one minute longer per hour of scheduled flight.
In addition to easing up on the throttle, the airlines are also looking at reducing weight and reducing the amount of time the engines idle between actual flying time. Horizon Air has started to only use one propeller when the plane is taxiing.
“Just like automobiles, if you drive a little slower, you’re going to save fuel,” said Capt. Claude Saint-Martin, manager of fuel efficiency and environmental matters for Air Canada. “That’s what we’re doing.”
Airline hypermiling has reduced the amount of fuel used by over 8 million kilograms. I’m not sure how much a kilogram of jet fuel costs, but I’m willing to bet it is a significant saving. Fuel costs are the point where it is beginning to impact the masses. New car buyers are shopping for more fuel efficient cars and now even the airlines consider more fuel.
“When you get down to the United States where the average fleet age might be anywhere from 15 to 17 years, the average age of our fleet at WestJet is three years,” said Bartrem. “The technological advances that have been made in engine technology that allow you to fly more fuel-efficiently are significant.”
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