The race by airlines to shave weight and save fuel is now reaching safety equipment.

Jazz airlines, Air Canada's regional affiliate, recently removed life vests from all of its planes – including those that fly over water – to reduce fuel consumption and save money.

Transport Canada regulations allow carriers that fly within 50 nautical miles of shore to use flotation devices instead of vests. Safety cards in seat pockets will now direct passengers to use the seat cushions, which float.

Jazz planes criss-cross Canada and the U.S., flying over the Great Lakes and up the Eastern seaboard from Halifax to Boston and New York.

"We operate within Transport Canada regulations and in this case we're within their regulations for operations over water," says Jazz spokesperson Debra Williams. A number of east coast routes were adjusted to bring them within the 50-mile boundary.

Commercial-style life vests weigh roughly a half-kilogram each. It's unclear how much Jazz stands to save as a result of the move.

An Air Canada spokesman says the airline has no plans to remove life vests from its planes.

The Jazz decision, which follows surcharges for meals, baggage, pillows and, in the U.S., bottled water, is the latest attempt by airlines to make up for soaring fuel prices, which have almost doubled in recent years.

But the payback has been minimal.

Ask "how much ... those life vests weigh and the answer is not very much," says Tom Hinton, a former director for aviation at Canada's Transportation Safety Board.

"But when you're trying to save every bit of money you can to make the airline more productive, every bit counts."

At the most, the various changes add up to 2 per cent of fuel costs, says Joseph D'Cruz, a professor of strategy at the Rotman School of Management, who has studied the airline industry for 25 years.

Ditching the vests "says to me that the financial circumstances of the airline industry are in such disarray that a 1 per cent cost is being considered worthwhile," says D'Cruz. "I think accumulatively, it's making air travel a relatively unpleasant experience."

Jazz's fleet of Dash 8s and Bombardier jets carry a maximum of 75 people and have always had flotation seat cushions. The cushions have straps that a person must hang on to, while vests are self-righting, keeping the face above water.

Seat cushions that float have "always been a kind of a Plan B," says Hinton. "The person has to hold on to it and the difficulty there is if the water is cold ... you can't hang on very long before your fingers and your hands won't respond."

The cushions are typically secured to the seat pan with Velcro and can be removed by grasping the edges and lifting up.

"It's standard that any airplane has to be evacuated within a couple of minutes and if you've got everybody standing up in the aisles trying to tear up their seat cushion, and carry it under their arms, and get out a hatch, it's really going to slow things down," says Hinton, who consults on aviation safety.

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The 50-nautical-mile boundary is an international standard, developed as engine reliability improved. It is the distance from which an aircraft can reach shore even if an engine fails.

Still, says Hinton, "The question becomes how safe is safe. A life vest is designed so that when you wear it, your face is held out of the water ... it's not likely you're going to drown, but the issue is the time spent in the water and how much body heat you lose before you die of hypothermia."





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