At Jazz Airlines, They Don't Need No Stinking Life Vests

MayorBob.

Posted to Business on Tue Aug 26, 2008 at 02:26:29 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Anyone who hasn't noticed the airline industry is in crisis hasn't been paying attention. The increased cost of fuel has only added to the industry's dilemma and has sparked economic decisions. It's now fairly common to have to pay dearly for extra or odd-shaped luggage, the airlines' haute cuisine (or just a snack) and even bumping passengers off flights because they keep cancelling routes. All of these create discomfort and distress for passengers. But, Air Canada Jazz may have gone beyond discomforting passengers into the area of endangering passengers.

The airline, a regional air transport line, announced that they will no longer be carrying life vests aboard their flights. According to the airline, you'll do just fine grabbing the bottom cushion of your seat to use as a floatation device. Jazz says, because all of their flights fly within 50 nautical miles of shore, this cost-savings decision is in line with Transport Canada regulations. Yet, a 2005 letter from Transport Canada indicated inflatable life vests are the best way of avoiding fatalities for survivors of crashes into water. The 50-nautical-mile boundary is an international standard and is usually considered to be the limit an airliner could manage to fly if its engines failed. Jazz flies only to Canadian and US destinations, but its route map shows it does fly over a good number of large bodies of water.

The main link provides a list of other cost savers airlines are employing to avoid red ink. They include stuff like washing planes more often to taxiing on one engine. But, the decision to do away with life vests in favor of seat cushions as floatation devices has some people concerned. Tom Hinton, from Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB), says the vests don't weigh "very much" but that, with airlines scrambling to preserve every penny of profit "every bit counts." Joseph D'Cruz, an industry expert, estimates that getting rid of the vests onboard, at best result in fuel savings in the area of two percent. D'Cruz sees this move as a sign of Jazz's desperation that "the financial circumstances of the airline industry are in such disarray that a 1 per cent cost is being considered worthwhile."

The placard, showing passengers how to use the seat cushion, is shown on the main link. Hinton expresses doubt that a ditching in the fairly chilly waters most of Jazz's flights take it to might not turn problematic. He sees this from the standpoint of "everybody standing up in the aisles trying to tear up their seat cushion, and carry it under their arms, and get out a hatch, it's really going to slow things down." He also questions just how much more effective a seat cushion is over a life vest "when you wear it (life vest), your face is held out of the water ... it's not likely you're going to drown." But Hinton does allow that the critical matter is how long it would be before rescue crews could get to survivors to pull them out of the water. Air Canada, Jazz's parent, has announced they have no intention of removing life vests from their flights.