Spoons lose out on US planes
Ferry Online Travel News 11/06/2009
A United States airline has taken spoons out of its cutlery pack to save weight.
The next time you sit down for your all important in-flight meal you might notice that they have taken away the spoon from your pack.
It is a cost cutting exercise by one US airline but that is not all as other airlines across the world have taken more extreme actions. One Japanese airline shaved a few millimeters of their entire cutlery sets to save weight.
People will be forgiven for thinking that this is bordering on the ridiculous but a jumbo jet with around 400 people on board having three meals equals to a few kilos in weight loss. Combine this over the year and you are looking at a considerable saving in fuel costs.
“Airlines are going through what they put on a plane. They are now saying that if we are only carrying 100 passengers, then we should only load what they need,” said Paul Steele, director of environment at International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Other ways that airlines have been reducing weight is getting rid of the in-flight magazines and only loading food and liquid for the number of passengers on board. Next generation flight seats are said to be 30% lighter that current ones and carbon fibre is set to surround the TV screens which should cut the weight of them in half.
The aircraft of tomorrow looks set to become more environmentally friendly by saving vastly on fuel costs and cutting their carbon foot prints.
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