Share this on:

Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace

Airline removes life vests to lighten planes

Story Highlights
Airline says passengers have flotation devices, don't need life vests too
Canada doesn't require vests for flights within 50 miles of shore, carrier says
Air Canada regional carrier, Jazz, flies over Great Lakes and Eastern seaboard
Each life vest weighs about a pound, so Jazz is saving 50 pounds per flight
Next Article in Travel »

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- An official with Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz says the airline is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that Transport Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices instead of life vests, provided the planes remain within 50 miles of shore.

Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct passengers to use the seat cushions as flotation devices.

Stuart says Jazz is a transcontinental carrier that doesn't fly over the ocean.

Jazz planes do fly over the Great Lakes and along the Eastern seaboard from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Boston, Massachusetts, and to New York.

Stuart says all of Jazz's flights operate within 50 miles from shore. She says the airline operates 880 flights daily to 85 destinations in North America and says the number of flights that operate over water are minimal.

A commercial-style life vest weighs roughly a pound (half a kilogram), meaning about 50 pounds (25 kilograms) would be saved by removing them from a Dash-8 aircraft with 50 seats.

E-mail to a friend