|
TOKYO: Next time you take to the skies you may find there are fewer
pages in your in-flight magazine, your fork is slimmer and your
plate feels different. Blame it on soaring oil prices.
The seat you are sitting on may be lighter.
Perhaps there’s less water on board for the bathroom faucets and
toilets. The drinks trolley coming your way probably weighs less
too.
It’s all part of efforts by airlines to shed
weight and conserve fuel, running in tandem with more radical steps
such as cutting routes and capacity.
“Individually they may sound quite trivial,
but they all add up,” said Andrew Herdman, director general of the
Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines.
“Obviously, the more expensive the fuel, the
more the savings translate into. Given that oil prices are at a
record high and have quadrupled over the past few years, there’s
even more effort” to reduce weight, he told Agence France-Presse.
Japan Airlines (JAL), Asia’s largest carrier,
is among carriers that are putting fewer pages into their in-flight
magazines.
It has also slimmed the handles of its forks and
spoons, reducing their weight by two grams each, said JAL spokesman
Hisanori Iizuka.
The weight of a freight container has been cut
by 26 kilos, reducing the burden of a flight by one ton.
Even the porcelain in business class on
international flights is 20-percent lighter since the manufacturer
put tiny bubbles inside.
“It’s important to make every little effort,
which matters when you carry hundreds of passengers on a flight and
operate 365 days” a year, said Iizuka.
“The heavier the plane is, the lower its fuel
efficiency. This is part of our efforts to slim down everything
possible.”
It’s not the only airline looking to shed
weight. Australia’s Qantas is also considering similar steps to
conserve fuel.
“We don’t want to compromise our product or
service,” but the carrier is looking at lightweight meal carts,
alternative packaging and examining “what we carry to remove
waste, that type of thing,” a spokesman said.
Singapore Airlines has introduced lightweight
drink trolleys and serviceware on board new aircraft such as the
A380 superjumbo and the Boeing B777-300ER.
“These carts and serviceware will be on all
new aircraft which join the fleet in the future. As for magazines,
based on crew feedback, titles not in demand were removed,” a
spokesman for the carrier said.
All Nippon Airways has also been reducing the
weight of seats, tableware, trolleys used by cabin attendants and
other items.
“By introducing lighter porcelain for first
and business classes, we have reduced the weight by an average 66
kilograms on one flight,” a spokesman said. “We’re always
looking for items whose weight can be reduced.”
Even paint adds weight to an aircraft, so some
carriers have been experimenting with only polishing the exterior,
particularly for cargo planes.
Airlines worldwide face total losses of at least
$2.3 billion this year because of soaring fuel costs, according to
the International Air Transport Association, which said the industry
is in “crisis.”
At least two-dozen carriers around the world
have gone bust this year.
Some US carriers have started to charge the
first checked-in bag.
And there is even speculation that the
passengers might eventually have to step on the scales before
boarding a plane, with heavier travelers paying more to fly,
although experts say that day is not here just yet.
“I don’t think we’ve quite got to the
point of passengers being weighed,” said Herdman.
-- AFP
|
