Hat tip to Groovy Green for pointing me to this story: Plane Flies Five People Across the Atlantic.
Seems that American had to cancel a Chicago-London flight that was fully booked. They found spots for all but 5 passengers on the other flights they had making that route that day. The remaining five ended up being flown over on their own.
I truly don't understand what happened. Why did they have to cancel the flight? And if they "had to" cancel it, then how were they still able to basically fly that flight anyway, but with only 5 people?
The real reason they say they had to get that plane across the Atlantic is that it was the aircraft that was to be used for another flight coming back over from London to Chicago...a flight that was also fully booked, and where they couldn't successfully move enough of the passengers to other flights because it was a heavy travel day.
So, what's the problem?
It is estimated that each passenger produced 43 tons of CO2 – consuming enough fuel to carry a Ford Mondeo around the world five times.
I really am of two minds on the story. I mean I get that is seems "obscene", as the Friends of the Earth organization called it, to waste that much fuel on just 5 people. It seems amazing that there was no other way to solve the issue.
On the other hand, I also get that airlines are at this point operating with those kind of slim margins for error or surprises. They don't just have planes hanging around at major airports in case they're called for. A single plane will make as many flights in a day as they can possibly squeeze in...and would canceling flights for 200 people in London have been the satisfactory solution?What kind of waste and inefficiencies and unnecessary expenditures would that ripple effect cause?
As a frequent traveler, I am sure I would have been pretty incensed by any such decision.
I have two questions to mull over:
1. Do you travel more than you have to? Could some of your business get done by tele-conference and video-conference. As a producer of conferences I obviously believe in the value of face-to-face interaction. but are we all a bit too old-fashioned in our reliance on it?
2. Isn't someone working on jet fuel or airplanes that don't expend quite that obscene amount of fuel? Seems like there would be a great market for that these days!
Comments