SmartPeoples Guide

Airlines Around the World


Hello . . . airline
and airport management (cont.)

  • Why are airline cowboy schedules allowed to drive people ?
  • Are flight cabin people trained to serve people or cattle ?
  • Why are handicapped people rushed by cart to next gate and not assisted to a seat or wheel chair ?
  • Why are carts allowed to speed from gate to gate; how often will walking people get hit ?
  • Are flight personnel serving greedy management wolves / always under short schedule pressures also ?

    • Services Comments:

    There is room for improvement.

    Consumer Reports finds most U.S. airlines lacking seat comfort (web posted July 9, 1997)
    -- Expect to get a little closer to your fellow travelers this summer. The number of passengers packed onto flights is up sharply since 1995, according to the Consumer Reports Travel Letter's 1997 airline seat comfort rating.
    -- On average, planes are 85 percent full, a crunch compared to previous figures of about 65 percent. Not only are the crowds near-capacity, but they're in close quarters, too; many U.S. airlines are packing passengers into small, cramped seats, according to the report. (Is this a people report or a cattle report?)

    Lack of adequate seating arrangements:

    Why are people so discusted with flying?.


    AIRLINES: Please wake up.

    Nervous flyers may board an airliner fearing a terrorist bomb or a mid-air collision. But who would give a thought to the dangers posed by a cramped economy seat?

    Emma Christoffersen, a "fit and healthy" 28-year-old according to her fiancé, died from deep vein thrombosis after disembarking in London from a long-haul flight from Australia.

    This blood clotting condition, while certainly not confined to airline passengers, is increasingly becoming known as "economy class syndrome".

    The Aviation Health Institute (AHI) estimates 30,000 passengers in the UK experience these blood clots each year. Several die from it.

    The combination of tight legroom and dehydration, familiar to those seated in "cattle class", is being blamed.

    Squeezed In: Veteran economy travellers who suspect they are being squeezed into smaller and smaller spaces by the airlines may have a point.

    The AHI says some major carriers have shaved valuable inches from economy seating since the 1980s.

    The "pitch" - the distance between your seat-back and the one in front - can easily be changed by an aeroplane's operator.

    The UK law sets a minimum pitch of 26 inches, the distance deemed necessary to allow passengers to get out of their seats in an emergency.

    The Consumers' Association thinks 31 inches is the minimum pitch required to afford passengers any real comfort.

    On long-haul flights airlines rarely exceed this pitch by more than a few inches.

    On budget and charter aircraft, the legroom provision can be even grimmer. Some barely surpass the legal minimum.

    Civil Aviation authorities MUST re-examining its rules on cabin spacing, in fear of the fact that people are fast outgrowing the seats provided for them.

    Those travellers, particularly the tall, banking on aisle or emergency exit seats may be losing out. The airlines have become adept at filling their aircraft to capacity. Today, at peak times, there can be almost no spare seats. On average they are around 75% full."

    Airlines have changed their ticketing to "extract as much revenue as possible" from each flight. Resulting in "cattle" travel.

    sincerly Frenchie


    Ever Flown the US to Brazil to Africa to Europe Route? Try This one . . .

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    This page is dated December 1999.