Spoons and magazines targeted in airline fuel conservation efforts

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In order to make their planes lighter in weight and save fuel in the economic downturn, a number of carriers are taking measures such as reducing the size of spoons they use for in-flight meals and scrapping magazines, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In the US, Northwest Airlines has taken spoons out of the cutlery pack for meals that don’t require their use.

According to Paul Steele, the IATA’s director of the environment, Northwest is not alone in its actions.

Japanese carrier JAL took all of the items that were typically loaded onto a 747 and put them on the floor of a school gymnasium to determine what was really necessary to have on board.

As a result of this inspection, the airline reduced their size of all in-flight cutlery by a fraction of a centimetre.

Steele commented: “When you are talking about a jumbo jet with 400 people on board, being served two to three meals, this can save a few kilos,” adding: “You work out how much fuel that consumes over a year, and you can be talking about a considerable amount of money.”

Other airlines have adopted different measures to reduce aircraft weight. In-flight magazines are becoming a thing of the past on some carriers, with duty-free catalogues appearing on the screens of seat-back monitors.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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