The Long Descent: Air Canada’s Jazz Jettisons Life Vests to Save Fuel

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.27.08 | 10:07 AM ET

imageI’ve said it before, but here it goes again: Airline news items these days are becoming positively Onion-esque, and this one’s no exception. Air Canada subsidiary Jazz has removed the life vests from its fleet to help shed a few pounds, the CBC reports. The floating seat cushions will remain; apparently, only one of the two devices is required on flights that remain within 50 nautical miles of the mainland.

I understand the need to cut costs, but this comes absurdly close to our worst-case scenario. At the very least, couldn’t they have kept the life vests, and made them available for all those passengers willing to pay an ‘Emergency Landing Over Water’ fee?

Photo by miguelb via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Tags: Air Travel, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


4 Comments for The Long Descent: Air Canada’s Jazz Jettisons Life Vests to Save Fuel

pam 08.27.08 | 1:45 PM ET

Can’t. Stop. Laughing…
over the “Emergency landing over water fee.”

Snork snork.

Jay 08.27.08 | 6:01 PM ET

Many airlines already have removed the life vests as they serve no useful purpose except on extensive overseas routes.  An example is US Air (just flew from Phoenix to Vancouver on an Airbus A320… NO lifejackets, flotation seat cushions only). A review of domestic aircraft accidents into water shows that lifejackets have never been a factor in saving lives.  An example is the Air Florida accident in Washington, DC.  None of the survivors were wearing flotation gear. In my opinion, better to save the weight and subsequently, the fuel.

Eva 08.27.08 | 9:36 PM ET

Jay - You seem to be pretty knowledgeable on the subject. I’m curious to know why there’s a distinction being made between domestic and international flights? Seems to me, if they’re needed on one, they’re needed on the other; useless on one, useless on the other. Any ideas?

Life Vests 10.13.08 | 8:54 AM ET

An example is the Air Florida accident in Washington, DC.  None of the survivors were wearing flotation gear. In my opinion, better to save the weight and subsequently, the fuel.
Thanks for the really good read, I really appreciate that.

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